


FATEful Encounter

by Ryu_Demi



Category: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2
Genre: Eventual Romance, M/M, Vampire AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-14
Updated: 2015-08-14
Packaged: 2018-04-14 16:42:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 37,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4571952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ryu_Demi/pseuds/Ryu_Demi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At a very young age, Hibiki knew he was different from the other children. Different in the case that his wounds healed faster than anyone else, his senses and strength were far stronger than others, and he could summon a sort of Familiar in the shape of a white tiger. Oh, and he craved blood. There was that too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there, finally got around to getting an account on this site, so I thought I would cross post one of my works from Fanfiction.net from here.

At a very young age, Hibiki knew he was different from the other children. Different in the case that his wounds healed faster than anyone else, his senses and strength were far stronger than others, and he could summon a sort of Familiar in the shape of a white tiger.

Oh, and he craved blood. There was that too.

He couldn’t go to his parents, because they weren’t his real parents. He had stumbled upon this when he was walking past their room. They were discussing his latest run in with bullies (something that occurred due to some of his differences). The discussion involved them trying to figure out what to do about him, when his father suggested that perhaps it was a phase that adopted children go through to get more attention. The conversation was dropped after that, and Hibiki was left alone to his problems.

At least, he was alone until one day he found out he could summon a white tiger. At the time, it was only the size of a normal housecat, but that didn’t matter to Hibiki, and thus named the tiger Byakko after one of the four creatures of legend.

But Hibiki didn’t tell anyone about his new friend for fear that people take it away. There was also the fact that it might have given more of a reason for his bullies to torment him. This left him to deal with them by himself, until it changed one day.

That change was in the form of a person named Daichi, who came to his defense. From that day on, they became the best of friends.

 ....

Of course that didn’t matter now as he was currently fighting for his life, or rather Byakko, who had grown to become as tall he was over the years, was brutally tearing through those…

_Ghouls…_ A voice whispered from the back of his mind.

Either way, more were showing up by the minute and Byakko could only handle so much. Hibiki looked around; trees surrounded him (he had come here to draw the Ghouls away from his neighborhood after coming home from practice exams and encountering them), and a fence behind him and Byakko, with more Ghouls on the other side of the fence.

They didn’t seem to be able to climb the fence, so Hibiki came up with a plan to fly up to one of the taller trees in his bat form (discovered when he had been pushed from a cliff during an elementary school field trip. To his astonishment, he found out he could fly, and later found out from seeing his reflection that he could turn into a small white bat).

In any case, flying up to the tree seemed like a good plan. So Hibiki shifted, and then dismissed Byakko, perhaps a bit too soon as one of the Ghouls lunged up, managing to clip one of his wings with its hideous black nails, as he was flying up. Despite that, he ignored the pain and managed to fly up to the highest and closest branch with the strength he could muster. Immediately, he collapsed on the branch, searing pain shooting up from his wing.

From the looks of it, his wing was practically in tatters, and even his healing abilities would take a while to heal that up. 

Suddenly, thudding noises broke him from his thoughts, causing him to look down and see the Ghouls trying to jump up at him.

‘Now what?’ Hibiki thought. He couldn’t stay till dawn, his parents- _No, not parents…_ -guardians would be wondering where he was.

Immediately, as if to answer his thoughts, flames erupted and engulfed all the Ghouls. They all shrieked in pain, before being silenced by the fire.

Soon the fire died down, leaving only ashes and the smell of burnt flesh wafting through the air. Hibiki didn’t have to wait long to find out where the fire came from, as a lion like beast walked into view, followed by three other people in black and gold? -clothing.

“Well done Cerberus.” The silver haired man said as he dismissed the beast.

“Sir, you didn’t have to go out of your way. We could have handled it.” A dark haired woman with well-endowed breasts spoke.

“We would have burned the corpses in the end. This just sped up the process.” The silver haired man said as he observed the surroundings.

“To do so near so many flammable objects was risky even for you, Chief.” The third person, a woman with blonde hair and also well-endowed in the chest area spoke. Seriously, what was with women these days? They all had large chests, even his other friend Io.

“As if I’d make a mistake that a pup would make.” He said, before his gaze zoned in on Hibiki with amazing accuracy, causing Hibiki to almost flinch.

“What’s wrong?” The dark haired woman said before turning her gaze. “An albino bat?” She said after noticing Hibiki.

“How rare, although even though it’s bleeding, it seems strange for all the Ghouls to go after it.” The blonde said, taking a step toward the tree before movement stopped her.

In one graceful motion, the silver haired man moved and shifted mid-leap. Proceeding to fly up to the branch that Hibiki was on, and latch onto the branch above it and hang upside down. Then he fixed a strong gaze onto the other.

The first thought Hibiki had for the larger, and all black (there wasn’t one spot of silver) bat was-

‘How can he hang upside down like that? I wonder if I can do that…’ Hibiki thought as he tilted his head to try to change the view.

Before he could continue with that thought process, he was promptly smacked in the face by a wing, sending him tumbling out the tree. His inability to fly caused him to panic and lose concentration on his bat form, much to his, and the two women underneath him, surprise.

….

When the feeling of falling had passed, Hibiki opened his eyes to see one of the women’s breasts pressed up against his face.

‘As nice as this is and all, it’s getting hard to breath.’ Hibiki thought as he tried to push the other off, only to hiss in pain.

“Although you might be making him happy right now, it’s probably best to get up.” The blonde said, causing the dark haired woman to get confused.

“What do you me- ah!” She said before noticing that she was smothering Hibiki with her breasts, and instantly jumped up and away. A very pronounced blush already spreading across her face.

The lifted weight allowed Hibiki to see what had caused him pain. Upon looking, he saw that the wing that had been torn up, had become his hand and was severely cut up.

Before anyone could say anything, the silver haired man dropped down onto his two feet, after shifting mid-fall, and promptly spoke, “Which coven do you belong to?” He said in an authoritative tone.

Hibiki didn’t know what to say to that, for one, he had almost died twice, although the fall probably wouldn’t have killed him, probably, and as for the other, the thought that there were more like him was finally catching up. Luckily, he didn’t have to say anything as the blonde cut in.

“Now, now Chief. We should heal him first before interrogating him.” She said as she walked up to Hibiki and lifted his hand. A warm glow then appeared and Hibiki watched in quiet astonishment as his wounds began healing. “I’m Otome. What’s your name?” She said as she looked up from her healing.

“Hi-Hibiki Kuze.” Hibiki said after finding his voice.

“Well, Kuze-kun, the flustered woman is Makoto, and the grouchy man is our esteemed chief, Yamato Hotsuin.” Otome said, causing Yamato to shoot her a glare at the last remark.

“U-uh. It’s… nice to meet you all.” Hibiki said, grimacing. What else was he supposed to say in this situation.

The rest of the healing was spent in silence, with an occasional breeze ruffling the trees. Once his hand was all healed, Hibiki gave it an experimental flex, and was surprised to find it didn’t hurt anymore. With that problem out of the way, that left another problem.

“So… what’s a coven?” Hibiki said, causing Makoto to frown slightly, Otome to look concerned, and Yamato to give him a look that said “are you stupid?”

Needless to say, Hibiki should not have asked that question. Nevertheless, Makoto answered anyway.

“A coven is a group of three or more vampires.”

Vampires. He had had his suspicions before, but this merely confirmed it. He, and probably his birth parents, were vampires. Surprisingly, Hibiki didn’t feel much from this revelation.

“I… am not part of a coven. I only have my friends, and my par- guardians.” Hibiki said after a moment of silence. The last part causing even Yamato to frown.

“Your guardians are humans, are they not?” Yamato said.

“Yes.” Hibiki said as he caught Otome and Makoto whispering to each other.

_“Why would he not be with his birth parents?”_

_“My guess would be that they abandoned him due to his bat form’s albino colors.”_

_“They abandoned him just because of superstition!?”_

_“Perhaps, or maybe they just thought he wouldn’t make it through life.”_

Yamato paid them no heed as he stared long and hard at Hibiki, until he turned on his heel and began walking away.

“Sir?” Makoto said in a confused tone. Yamato didn’t acknowledge the response, and merely disappeared among the trees. Otome and Makoto shared a look, did a final glance at Hibiki, and then proceeded to follow after Yamato.

‘Weird.’ Hibiki thought as he headed back home once he was sure the coast was clear.

…..

The next day, things returned to normal, or at least relatively normal. Throughout the day Hibiki had the feeling that he was being watched, but when he threw out his senses, he didn’t find anything out of the normal, except a pair of students making out behind the school. He wasn’t going to get into that.

Other than that, there were only two noteworthy things that were particularly strange. One was when he had been called to the nurse’s office to pick-up and deliver medication to one of his teachers. Hibiki wondered why the teacher couldn’t just pick it themselves, but he was too busy restraining himself to think much on it.

The reason he had to restrain himself? There was another student having a massive nosebleed, and the scent of blood saturated the air. Only years of practice and will power prevented Hibiki from doing anything potentially harmful. Of course now he had to make an early trip this year to the small market, nestled discreetly between two larger buildings, that sold animal blood among other things.

It would have been insane and suicidal to have gone all these years without some kind of blood. It had been very fortunate that he had stumbled upon the place after walking as quickly as he could from a very bloody crime scene that he had unfortunately encountered on his way home.

Still, that was there and then, and now Hibiki wouldn’t be able to hang out with Daichi and Io, since he had to get some animal blood to satiate his cravings.

So, at the end of the school day, was when the second strange thing happened. Hibiki was getting ready to part with Io and Daichi on the excuse that he had some errands to run, when a large gust of wind suddenly passed by, and then Io gasped.

Hibiki turned and saw that Io’s hand had been cut. It wasn’t too big or deep, but it was bleeding. Hibiki immediately squashed the cravings. He would not dare harm his friends, ever. So with a strong resolve, he walked up to Io, pulled out a handkerchief and wrapped it around the hand.

“It’s only temporary, so you should probably go get it bandaged.” Hibiki said as he finished tying the knot.

“Oh, thanks Hibiki.” Io said as she put her hand to her chest. 

“Yeah. We’ll get to it. See you tomorrow.” Daichi said as he and Io began walking the opposite direction.

…..

Hours later, as the sun was beginning to set, Hibiki found himself in an abandoned playground finishing the container of blood with a grimace. Animal blood did make the cravings recede, but that didn’t mean it tasted good.

Hibiki closed the container, put it back into the paper bag, and then threw it into a nearby trash can. Silence took over after that, and Hibiki got up to leave when he noticed the monkey bars.

On a whim, Hibiki got up on one of the bars, hooked his legs around it, and let the world turn upside down. Surprisingly, Hibiki did not feel the head rush that Daichi mentioned a lot during their childhood when he did similar motions to what Hibiki was doing now.

“Maybe I should do this in my bat form.” Hibiki mumbled to himself as he let himself dangle. His bunny hood had fallen over his head when he dropped his body, the ears moving occasionally as they caught the breeze.

As Hibiki dangled there, he began to mull over yesterday’s events. While he was happy that he wasn’t alone, but he still didn’t know that much about himself and other vampires. The books that he had read were somewhat helpful, but they were hit and miss. Some lore seemed true, but others just seemed really ridiculous.

He did not burn in the sun (nor did he sparkle). All he got were sunburns, only when he was out in the sun for a long while. He also wasn’t repelled by Christ, or anything related.

“I should’ve asked the-“ Hibiki mumbled before something hot and bright came flying at him.

Immediately Hibiki swung out of the way and let himself drop- onto the back of Byakko who he had summoned when he had swung out of the way.

Byakko didn’t need a command as it began to get some distance from the monkey bars, and as Hibiki righted himself, he could see that a fireball had hit the bars and left it charred. Then he turned to see Cerberus and Yamato, who had a look of approval on his face.

Before Hibiki could so much as utter a word, Yamato spoke. “With every passing moment, you continue to exceed my expectations.”

“…”

“You have survived this long, have strong restraint, and good instincts.”

“…”

“You would do well in my coven.”

“…what?” Hibiki said, dumbfounded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In some Asian cultures, the color white is connected with death


	2. Fate Level 0

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ..

“It is as I said. You should join my coven.” Yamato said as Hibiki slowly got off Byakko’s back.

“I’ll have to refuse. I’m fine living normally.” Hibiki said, still wary.

“Therein lies the problem. You were never supposed to live ‘normally’. You were to be raised among your own kind, instead, you were abandoned simply because of your blood.” Yamato said as he began to walk toward Hibiki. Byakko stepped protectively in front of Hibiki in response, and then gave a low growl, causing Yamato to pause. “You have raised your Familiar well. To be able to think for itself shows how much potential you have. Most vampires your age are still spouting commands loud enough for the enemy to hear.” Yamato said as he cast a gaze at Byakko, and turned his gaze back toward Hibiki.

“I just have a natural talent for raising animals.” Hibiki said, taking a step back, and angling his body toward the closest exit.

Yamato’s eyes narrowed perceptively. “While that notion is impressive, refusal is not an option. You cannot be allowed to go about unsupervised anymore.” Yamato said.

Before Hibiki could even bolt away, Cerberus suddenly charged and tackled Byakko. Hibiki turned his head for an instant, Byakko’s name on the tip of his tongue, but had to quickly twist his body around in order to barely avoid a hit meant for his stomach. Although this wasn’t the end, the fist then began to head toward his face, and Hibiki only had enough time to block with arms before the blow connected, sending him skidding across the floor.

Even without thinking about it, Hibiki knew his arm had been broken, or at least fractured since he could barely move his fingers on his left arm where the blow had hit.

Before Hibiki could think of his next move, a pained roar made his whip his head around toward the source, just in time to see Byakko disappear in a shimmering rain of light.

Without thinking, Hibiki turned and began to run, which wasn’t a good idea, now that he thought about it. Since Yamato was clearly much faster, and proved to be so when Hibiki was suddenly yanked back (most likely by one of the ears on his hoodie), and then promptly thrown against a tree, arm against his throat.

The wind was knocked right out of him, but he was able to utter a few words. “My p-parents will wonder where I am.”

Yamato raised an eyebrow. “My underlings will alter their memories, and remove any evidence of your existence. Your…parents will no longer remember nor know you anymore. ” Yamato said with a firm tone.

“…what about school and my friends?” Hibiki said, his voice getting quieter.

“This is your last year of highschool, correct?” A nod. “Then you’ll be allowed to finish your education there. As for your...companions, you will need to tell them of your heritage, or you must abandon them. Those are your options.” Yamato concluded as he relaxed his hold on Hibiki.

Hibiki didn’t say anything, already knowing the end result. Although telling his friends or abandoning them didn’t seem like good options, but he had until the end of the year to decide.

Yamato sensing Hibiki had come to the desired conclusion, released his hold on the other. Although he didn’t step back, instead, he reached into the inside of his jacket and produced a metal flask engraved with an intricate dragon design. Yamato uncapped it and pushed it toward Hibiki’s lips.

“Now that you’ll be a part of my coven, you’ll need to take proper sustenance.” Yamato said as he began urging Hibiki to drink.

Proper sustenance being human blood from the smell of it, causing Hibiki’s fangs to elongate, although he didn’t immediately drink. Animal blood was one thing, human blood was another. He was hesitant to drink since he was brought up as a human, but given the fact that Yamato didn’t seem to be relenting anytime soon, and the fact that he would probably have to drink more in the future, Hibiki took hold of the flask with his good hand and took a sip.

It…

It tasted like takoyaki….

What?

While he didn’t hate takoyaki, the lack of texture was just unsettling. Now Hibiki regretted not trying that takoyaki infused drink that Daichi had bought last week. At least it would have prepared himself for this.

After drinking enough to satisfy Yamato, Hibiki decided voice a question he really wanted to ask. “Is that some special kind of blood?” Hibiki said, causing Yamato to pause in capping the flask.

“No, it is my preferred stock of blood. What? Do you like it?” Yamato said as he finished capping the flask, and then pocketed it again.

“No, uh, I just wasn’t expecting the taste.” Hibiki said. He wondered if Yamato had ever tried real takoyaki. A quick glance and Hibiki guessed he probably hadn’t, since Yamato wasn’t commenting on the taste.

“Now come, we’ll need to head back to the nest. Night is falling.” Yamato said as he instantly shifted into his bat form.

Hibiki was going to ignore how fast time went by. He was also going to ignore how quickly Yamato was able to shift into a bat (he couldn’t even shift that quickly). Instead, he went with the most obvious, at least to him.

“Uh, I can’t really fly right now.” Hibiki said to the hovering black bat, while waving his injured arm, and giving a wince in response. “My arm is fractured.”

Yamato instantly shift back to his human form again. “Hm, you are more fragile than I thought.” Hibiki twitched. “Very well, I’ll carry you back. Just shift to your bat form.” Yamato said and shifted back again.

Hibiki did as he was told, and wondered how Yamato was-

Holy cr- Hibiki resisted the urge to run as Yamato was swooping down at him like a hawk hunting its prey. Now that he thought about it, it probably was Yamato’s hunting maneuver.

In any case, Hibiki gave a squeak of pain. Clearly Yamato never did this before, or at least not for an ally. Although he did have enough sense to loosen his grip, still, Hibiki wondered if he should have at least attempted to fly. The skin on his back was really starting to hurt.

\--

They had flown for a few minutes at a speed not usual for normal bats, and Hibiki was glad that Yamato had a strong grip on him, no matter how painful it was. He really didn’t want to fall at the height that Yamato was flying at.

Another thing that Hibiki noticed that they were flying into more urban areas until the Diet Building came into view. That was one thing that surprised Hibiki, the other was that Yamato flew directly into the hollow of a tree, and down a tube that seemed to be in it.

It wasn’t long before the tube led into a large room, where multiple floors could be seen. Hibiki was amazed that something this expansive was under the Diet Building.

Hibiki was broken out of his thoughts by multiple flutters and… whispers.

_“The Chief is back.”_

_“He’s been gone all day”_

_“Look, the Chief has something in his clutches.”_

_“Is it a rogue?”_

_“It’s not struggling, and there have been no reports of a white rogue.”_

_“New cattle perhaps?”_

_“The Chief doesn’t go out of his way to gather cattle.”_

The flutters and whispers died out when Yamato flew from the expansive room, into a long hallway. Eventually, Yamato flew into one of the rooms that lined the hallway. It looked to be an infirmary of sorts, and there sitting at a desk was Otome, who turned at the sound of them entering the room.

“Oh, chief… and Kuze-kun.” Otome said as Hibiki was dropped to the floor.

Hibiki gave a squeak of annoyance, and attempted to brush at the fur and skin on his back, only to hiss when he was painfully reminded that his hand, er, wing at present, was injured.

“Oh, did the Chief rough you up?” Otome said as she kneeled and began to heal Hibiki’s wing.

“He was resisting.” Yamato said, having apparently shifted.

“Well you were going to take him away from a life he grew up in.” Otome said as she stepped back and allowed Hibiki to shift back.

“He was living a life he was not meant for.” Yamato said, crossing his arms.

Otome gave a soft sigh. “What did you come in for?” Otome said.

“I need you to give him a physical.” Yamato said.

“Okay.” Otome said as she turned toward Hibiki. “Hold still, this will tickle for just a bit.” She continued, and then waved a glowing hand at Hibiki, encasing him in a soft glow. And true to her word, it did tickle somewhat, and Hibiki had to suppress his laughter. He didn’t have to suppress it for long, as it ended just as quickly as it started. Although Otome was no longer smiling by now. “What have you been eating the past few years?” Otome said with a slight frown.

“Uh, normal food, I mean human food… and occasionally animal blood.” Hibiki answered, unsure.

“No wonder your body is so starved.” Otome said.

“What do you mean?” Hibiki asked, confused.

“Oh. How should I put this? It’s like being malnourished, since your diet consisted of the equivalent of vampire junk food, and maybe imitation food.” Otome said after a moment of thought.

When she put it like that, it did sound kind of bad. Had he been a normal person, he probably would have been sickly.

“Be sure to put him on a proper diet. I need to tell some people to go collect his things, and change some minds.” Yamato said as he walked out.

_‘Oh right. I’ll be living here now.’_ Hibiki thought.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to this place real quick.” Otome said when she noticed Hibiki’s expression.

**Fate Level has now become 1**

_You can now converse telepathically_

_...._

_...._

_...._

Extra

Hibiki found himself sitting at a large table, lined with a seemingly endless amount of shot glasses full of “different kinds” of blood. Truthfully, they all looked the same to him.

“We need to find out what kind of blood you like. You wouldn’t want to keep drinking something you didn’t like.” Otome said as she held a clipboard with all the types of blood that were being placed in front of him.

“Perhaps if we blindfold you, it will make drinking easier.” Makoto said as she reached for one of the clean towels that were there in case any blood was spilled.

“Makoto has gone through the same experience. You see she used to be human.” Otome said with a smile.

“And I don’t regret ever changing.” Makoto said as she tied the towel around Hibiki’s head.

“By the way, Makoto’s favorite blood is that of someone having se-“ Otome said before Makoto cut in.

“Otome!” Makoto shouted, sounding flustered, although Hibiki couldn’t tell.

“Fine. Well, let’s start the taste testing.” Otome said, sounding happy.

And so began the time consuming effort to drink and taste to see which ones he liked, and which he didn’t. Many tastes were familiar, and some were new to him, but he could bet that there was a human food equivalent that tasted just the same.

Soon, Hibiki was almost down to the last shot, which he was thankful for. While the act of drinking human blood wasn’t too difficult anymore, there was a limit to how much liquid Hibiki could put into his stomach.

Although they did get some results from this taste test. There were types that Hibiki did like, such as the takoyaki tasting one, which were marked as ones that Hibiki would get for his stock of blood. Although they hadn’t found Hibiki’s absolute favorite type just yet.

“Maybe we don’t have your favorite in stock.” Otome said as she made an x mark next to the type that Hibiki just tasted. This one had an unfamiliar taste, and he hadn’t liked it much.

“The Hotsuin clan has the largest variance of blood types in their vaults. I highly doubt we don’t have his preferred type unless it is one of the more obscure ones.” Makoto said as she put a shot glass into a bin set aside for washing.

“Obscure ones?” Hibiki said as he turned in the general direction of Makoto, the towel still over his eyes.

“Blood from someone struck by natural lightning would be one. “ Otome said from Hibiki’s side as she placed the last glass in his hands. “Okay, last one.”

Hibiki gave a sigh of relief. Glad that it was almost over, and then downed the glass. Hibiki gave a moment of pause to see whether it was to his liking, and then gave another moment of pause. This glass seemed…different. It was sweet, but a different kind of sweet. Not like the sweets he was fond of eating, but almost like honey, except more than that.

“I think, this may be the one.” Hibiki said after a moment of deliberation.

“Really? That’s great. Now we can finally use this stock of blood.” Otome said as she put a star next to the source type.

“B-but tha-that’s from-!” Makoto said, sounding very much flustered.

“Now you have someone who prefers blood from the same class type as you.” Otome said gleefully.

“Wait, where is this blood from?” Hibiki said, suddenly nervous.

“Blood from a “warm” virgin, of the Lust class.” Otome said as Hibiki took the towel off. A smile beaming quite brightly on her face.

Hibiki paused, before speaking. “What’s a ‘warm virgin’?”


	3. Fate Level 1

Hibiki gave a huff, and then sent a volley of fire at the ghouls before him in a majestic sort of dance, all the while trying not to think about how the ghouls used to be a human.

Ghouls, the failed result of a lesser vampire trying to turn a human. They were also the root of all the vampire legends, or at least most of them.

Nevertheless, their immense numbers were a pain to deal with, but fortunately they are weak to various things, fire and light to name a few. That’s where the aversion to sunlight came from, and Hibiki was glad that fact was true. Had ghouls been able to come out at day, there would have been many more problems.

Hibiki took one last look at the ghouls, now piles of ash. They hadn’t been pretty to look at, with their black sunken eyes, chipped black nails, and sickly green skin. The tattered clothes just made them look more like zombies.

A noise behind Hibiki made him turn, only to get a nudged in the face by a white snout covered in…

“Ugh, Byakko!” Hibiki said with a smile as he playfully batted the tiger away. “Don’t do that, you’re covered in ghoul…ick.” Hibiki said while flicking the bits off his face, and once that was done, Hibiki looked behind Byakko to see that it had done its part. “Good job.” Hibiki said, and then summoned flames to dispose of them.

They were located in a wooded area at the far edge of the city, the ashes would end up nourishing the area and wouldn’t be discovered by then.

“I wonder if we should head ba-“ Hibiki said, only to hear Yamato in his head.

_“Kuze”_

“Ack!” - _“Uh, yeah?”_ Hibiki thought back after getting over his shock.

 _“Good, we’re telepathically connected now. What’s the status on your end?”_ Yamato said telepathically.

 _“All clear. The ghouls have been dealt with.”_ Hibiki thought back, all the while preventing Byakko from trying to nuzzle his face.

 _“Good, you may head back now.”_ Yamato said, ending the “conversation.”

Hibiki gave a deep sigh. _“Not another thing to get used to.”_

_“You have adapted well enough. This should be no problem for you.”_

Hibiki’s eye twitched, he didn’t bother responding. Truthfully, he was getting used to everything fairly quickly, even the use of Agi skills was becoming second nature to him. Although it did startle him immensely when he had first used it.

Originally he was supposed to be paired up with someone since he was a “pup”, but the first ghoul eradication mission he had with Yamato (this was so Yamato could determine who would be the right partner), Hibiki had reflexively thrown out his hand at a lunging ghoul, and fire had appeared, engulfing the ghoul.

Hibiki didn’t know what to say, and when he turned to look at Yamato, he received a look of approval and praise. From then on, Yamato declared that Hibiki would do all the ghoul missions by himself. Of course there were some protests, namely Otome and Makoto, but those died down after a few missions where Hibiki came back relatively unscathed.

With a shake of his head, Hibiki dismissed Byakko and shifted to his bat form. He had managed to shave off a few seconds to shift, but he was nowhere as fast as Yamato. His bat form had also grown slightly larger, but was still relatively smaller than Yamato’s.

In any case, as Hibiki flew above the clouds, the crescent moonlight glinting off his fur, he enjoyed the relative peace of the flight, even though he was getting somewhat tired. Just two weeks had passed since his life had changed so much, and Hibiki was just dreading the end of the school year. While initially he would have been overjoyed, it just meant the deadline to tell his friends or not was drawing closer.

They were still none the wiser to his separation from his “parents”, and his vampire heritage still remained secret. Still, he was just dreading the time when he would have to tell his friends. He didn’t know whether they would still accept him or not. At least he didn’t have to worry about practice exams and college anymore, Yamato had practically ripped that away from him, saying that his future was with the clan, and he wouldn’t have to worry about finding a job and other human things.

The break from practice exams did give him more time to relax, and it let him hang out with his friends, although the latter make it even more painful to choose.

Finally, after a few minutes of flying, the Diet Building came into sight, and after a few times of flying into non-hollow trees, Hibiki found the correct tree and flew down, glad for the night to be almost over.

Soon, the expansive room came into sight, and Hibiki was just about to fly to the floor where his room was located on, when he was snatched up by two hands.

When the disorientation of suddenly being grabbed had passed, Hibiki saw that it was an Asian girl in some interesting clothes, with the JPs uniform draped over her shoulders.

“Hm, an albino bat. How rare.” She said in a monotone.

Hibiki figured she must be a part of the government branch if the clan. It would explain why he never saw her before.

“After I do a few tests, I will mount you on my wall.” She said as if she were talking about the weather.

And suddenly “mad scientist” flew into Hibiki’s mind as he let loose a weak Zio, making the girl loosen her grip, allowing Hibiki to fly out and shift. All the while, the girl let out a hum of interest.

Before any of them could say anything, a voice cut in. “Oh Fumi, you’re back.” Otome said as he walked from out a corridor. Fumi didn’t respond, still looking at Hibiki, who was getting increasingly nervous.

“A white bat, yet black hair, and dressed in a strange white hoodie. Almost the opposite of the chief for the most part.” Fumi said as she took some steps closer.

Hibiki twitched at the hoodie part (this was his favorite hoodie), and almost took some steps back, but luckily Otome spoke before anything else happened.

“The chief would like to hear your report first hand.”

Fumi gave a pause, and then shrugged her shoulders. “Okay.” She said, and then shifted to a black bat, with lighter streaks of fur lining her back. Then she flew down a few floors, and disappeared into a hallway.

Hibiki gave a sigh of relief, causing Otome to chuckle. “Don’t worry about her, she’s just very interested in learning about new and unknown things.”

“Is she always like that?” Hibiki said.

“Mhm. Pretty much. Although she is a nice person once you get to know her. Now, any major injuries I need to know of?” Otome said as he walked closer to Hibiki, hand glowing slightly.

Hibiki shook his head. “No, and what did you mean that ‘she’s back’?” Hibiki said as the familiar tickle of the “scan” washed over him.

Otome gave a slight nod of her head in approval. “Fumi was sent out to investigate reports of new kinds of ghouls.”

“New kinds of ghouls?” Hibiki said as he and Otome began walking toward the living quarters.

“Yes. According to the reports, there are ghouls appearing that are different from the ones we’ve been encountering so far.” Otome said as they stopped in front of Hibiki’s room.

“I’ll be sure to keep a look out.” Hibiki said as he opened the door.

“I’m sure it won’t come to that. Well, good night.” Otome said, and then turned to head down the corridor.

For some reason, as Hibiki closed the door and collapsed on his bed, he had a bad feeling that maybe he would encounter them. With a sigh, Hibiki got up and prepared to go to sleep.

\--

The morning passed in the blink of any eye, and nothing truly eventful happened, although he did have to refill his flask. He forgot to do it the night prior, and he didn’t want to get chewed out for not eating again. In his defense, he did eat, just not what the vampires called proper food.

At present, he was currently waiting for the train with Daichi and Io, having spent the afternoon hanging out with them. They were having a conversation about what happened that day, when all of a sudden, the lights went out.

“W-what? A black out?” Daichi said.

“We should be care-“ Io started out, but was interrupted when people began exclaiming that there was someone on the tracks.

“Look, there’s someone there.”

“Maybe he’s a maintenance worker.”

“Wow, that was fast timing.”

And as the chatter rose to a certain volume, Hibiki’s eyes widened. For while everyone else’s sight wasn’t good in the sudden darkness, he could see perfectly fine, and what he saw wasn’t a person, but a ghoul. Except, this ghoul was… different.

It was green like any other ghoul, but it was also pink, or rather the globs growing off it were pink. Before Hibiki could think any more about it, the ghoul grabbed one of the globs from its shoulder, and threw it onto the platform.

Everyone’s attention was drawn to the object.

“Ew, what is that?”

“Some kind of gunk?”

“But why is it growing.”

And it was growing, and everyone began to draw closer to it, causing Hibiki to internally shout. Now he knew why Yamato referred to humans as dimwitted most of the time, although now wasn’t the time to be thinking that, as Hibiki called up a weak Zan that was strong enough to blow people away, but weak enough not to cause any damage.

He did so just in time as the pink glob exploded, causing significant damage to the platform, and making bits of the ceiling fall down. At once, everyone began to panic, and run for the exit, which was good, except his friends, who tried to get him to follow.

“Hibiki, we need to go!” Io shouted as she waved her arms in front of her in order to find him.

“Yeah, it’s not safe!” Daichi shouted as he looked around.

Hibiki stepped back, fist clenched. He couldn’t go with them now, he had to deal with the ghoul. So without a second thought, he used another Zan to blow them toward the exit, and all they could do was follow the crowd as the flow forced them back.

Once everyone was safely out of the way, Hibiki contacted Yamato.

_“Yamato!”_

It took a moment, but Yamato responded. _“Yes, what is it?”_ He sounded slightly irritated. Hibiki probably interrupted him as he was signing papers or something, but now wasn’t the time to worry about that.

 _“I think I encountered one of those… new…ghouls…_ ” Hibiki responded, his words trailing off as he turned and saw not one, but several ghouls, all getting ready to lob those bomb globs at him.

Immediately Hibiki began running as the start of a deadly game of dodge-bomb began, as the globs began to explode seconds after landing, with one landing near his feet and exploding right after, causing him to be thrown to the ground. At least they weren’t instantly lethal (to him anyway).

 _“Kuze, I’m sending back up your way. How many are there?”_ Yamato said, tone urgent.

 _“Can’t really count them right now, trying to avoid bomb thingies!”_ Hibiki answered back, and then yelped when one of the globs landed in front of him, making him jump out of the way to avoid the blast.

Yamato didn’t respond back, which was okay with Hibiki since he had to concentrate on the ghouls. So with the wave of a hand, Hibiki summoned Byakko to his side, then he flicked his wrist, sending fire at the ghouls.

At once, the once dark station lit up as fire appeared and engulfed all the ghouls. Hibiki knew right away that something was wrong, and was proved true when the fire died down, showing that they had hardly been affected by the fire.

‘Resistant against fire?’ Hibiki thought. That wasn’t good, the strongest skill he had was Fire Dance. Now all he was left with was Zan, Zio, and- “Byakko!” Hibiki shouted, and without needing further command, Byakko charged and slashed at the ghouls, sending them flying away and then crashing into various parts of the station.

There was a tense moment, and Hibiki thought that did it, when all the ghouls began to get up, having only sustained scratches.

‘Resistant against physical attacks too?’ Hibiki thought, frowning even more. “Fine then, I’ll just have to use my other skills.” Hibiki said as he fired off a Zio, and was immediately pleased to find that it was really effective. “Finally, something good.” Hibiki said as he fired off more Zios.

Soon, the air was filled with crackles of energy, and occasional thuds every time Byakko knocked away ghouls from Hibiki. Although some ghouls were defeated, there were still many more, and Hibiki was getting tired by the minute.

“I really wish I hadn’t forgotten to refill my flask.” Hibiki panted out as he fired off another Zio, sweat forming on his forehead.

Byakko wasn’t doing much better, having expended much more energy than usual to push back the ghouls. Although, despite the fact that its life was not in direct danger, so long as Hibiki lived, it too would live, but if Hibiki did die, then it would also follow. Despite that, Byakko genuinely cared about Hibiki, and would ensure the other got out alive, even if their lives were not connected.

So, with a roar, Byakko mustered up all its energy, and suddenly felt something. It instinctually grabbed onto that feeling, and suddenly blinding light struck the ghouls, followed by a loud boom that made Hibiki’s ears ring.

When the light faded, and the ringing stopped, Hibiki saw that all the ghouls had been vaporized by what apparently had been a strong Zio (he would need to learn the name later). He turned to look at Byakko, who was suddenly less ferocious looking with its wide and innocent eyes.

“Wow Byakko! I didn’t know you could do that!” Hibiki exclaimed as he stumbled over to the tiger and gave it a hug.

Byakko blinked, the feral gaze returning to its eyes. Then it moved its shoulders in a mock shrug, as if to say “me either.”

So with a smile, Hibiki decided to contact Yamato again _“Hey Yamato, I took care of the-“_ Hibiki thought before plopping noises interrupted him. Byakko and Hibiki whipped their heads at the sound, and saw multiple pink globs expanding in size. While the ghouls themselves had been vaporized, the explosive globs were not. Hibiki also noticed that most of the ceiling had caved in, blocking any escape

 _“This is gonna suck.”_ Hibiki thought as he braced himself, and Byakko curled defensively around him.

 _“What-“_ Was all he heard before the globs exploded and everything went black.

\--

Hibiki was sure that the bombs wouldn’t have killed him, probably. Not with Byakko protecting him, and a last ditch effort to use a Dia skill.

It still hurt.

A lot.

And thus Hibiki woke up to a world of pain. It hurt to move any part of his body, and his lungs felt like they were burning, although the cool air flowing from the mask on his face seemed to be soothing it a little.

With a groan, Hibiki opened his eyes to see a while ceiling. The groan also interrupted the silent conversation going on next to him.

 _“Hibiki, how are you doing?”_ Otomo said telepathically to him as she walked to his bedside.

 _“Do you really need to ask?”_ Hibiki said.

_“Sorry, force of habit. Oh, and just to be sure, are you in any pain?”_

_“Yes”_

_“I thought so. By now you should have realized human painkillers won’t work on you, but I can’t heal you right now since it would be strange for you to have suddenly healed. So the least I can do now is help numb the pain.”_ Otome said with an apologetic expression, and then waved a glowing hand over Hibiki.

Immediately, Hibiki found it easier to breathe, although there was a twinge of pain every now and then. Still, it was tolerable, and better than before.

 _“You do not have to worry about remaining in this hospital for long. We will be transferring you to our medical facilities.”_ Yamato said as he came into view.

 _“Makoto is filling out the paperwork as we speak, but you’ll have to stay here for the night until then.”_ Otome said.

 _“In the meantime, I am here to tell you several things. The first is that the situation has been labeled a terrorist attack. So if anyone comes in here to question you, simply substitute anything supernatural with natural.”_ Yamato said as he looked at Hibiki, who nodded.

 _“Second, I wish to congratulate you. You are the first person to survive an encounter with not one, but 15 Dubhe ghouls. Achieving such a feat is not easy, as they are of the Septentriones class.”_ Yamato said, that look of approval once again on his face.

“ _We can celebrate later, and you can tell everyone what happened. Right now were not exactly supposed to be here. So we’ll see you tomorrow.”_ Otome said as she headed for the open window, and shifted into a light brown bat, slightly smaller than Yamato, who decided to latch onto the drip pole and say one last message.

 _“Remember, it was terrorists you saw….and good night.”_ With that say, Yamato let go and flew out the window, leaving the room in silence, except for the occasional beep of the heart monitor, and the whoosh of the oxygen mask.

‘At least this day can’t get any worse.’ Hibiki thought as his eyes began to droop, but a noise outside his door caused them to open.

Before Hibiki could wonder who it was, the door opened to reveal a slightly tan man in a purple jacket.

“Oh good, you’re awake.” The man said as he closed the door and walked to Hibiki’s side. “I am detective Ronaldo Kuriki.” Ronaldo said as he opened up a flap on his jacket to reveal a badge. “I’m here to ask you a few questions. It won’t take long.” Ronaldo said as he pulled a chair from the wall and sat down.

Hibiki attempted to speak, but what came out was a hoarse whisper, which ended up making him cough.

“Whoa, easy there. No need to force yourself. You can just nod or shake your head. Is that alright?” Ronaldo said after Hibiki stopped coughing.

Hibiki nodded.

“Okay. You don’t need to feel pressured to answer all my questions, just the ones you’re comfortable with.” Hibiki nodded again, and Ronaldo smiled as he took out a pen and notebook from his jacket.

“Okay, first question.” Ronaldo said as he clicked his pen and looked Hibiki directly in the eyes.

“Do you believe vampires exist?”

“…” !?!? 

**Fate Level has now become 2**

_You can now gain access to stronger skills with the help of another_

_...._

_...._

_...._

Extra  


Never before in his life had he seen a white bat, well, a real white bat. That other one was just an imitation. He shifted, and flew up to the pup (because that’s what it was, small and young looking) to get a better look. The scent of blood reached his nose, but he refrained. It was tempting, but he wasn’t as weak to allow himself to give in. Upon closer inspection, the pup was indeed young, but there seemed to be some age in those eyes.

Yes, those eyes, they held so much yet told so little, but most of all, they were a shocking blue. They stood out from its white coat, which seemed to shine thanks to the moonlight seeping through the leaves.

He decided to speak. “Who are you?” He said telepathically, because all bats understood a vampire’s thoughts.

There was no response. Merely a tilt of the head, and a curious gaze. So it was another vampire then. He was instantly on guard, because this vampire was unknown to him, but he didn’t want to kill the other in case it was an asset. So, a test was in order. A fall from this height could determine whether the pup would live or die.

And so a swat of his wing, and the other was sent tumbling, but they shifted, and then seemed to move their body unconsciously to make the fall less damaging. Hm, this one had potential. Still, questions were in order. And then he dropped to confront the other.


	4. Fate Level 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forget when Yamato began to refer to the MC on a first name basis, but I did notice when it happened. So now Yamato now refers to the protagonist as "Hibiki" instead of "Kuze".

Hibiki’s mind was racing, but he was able to keep himself from showing anything. So with a blink, he slowly shook his head. Not quickly because that would have made the other suspicious.

Disappointment showed on Ronaldo’s face, but it was quickly replaced by a friendly smile.

“You don’t need to be afraid, I can help you. I know about your…vampire problem.” Ronaldo said, with the last part being whispered out. Hibiki stiffened, afraid that Ronaldo knew about him. Fortunately, Ronaldo took this response for something else. “They’re threatening you, aren’t they?” Ronaldo said as he put the notebook and pen down.

Hibiki didn’t know what to say, well, he couldn’t say anything right now, but that was beside the point. Yamato told him that the vampire society was secretly hidden, and that no one who was not involved with vampires knew about them. Apparently he was wrong.

Ronaldo took the lack of response as a yes, and continued on. “You’ve been separated from your parents, correct? But you can’t prove they’re your parents because they don’t remember you, and there’s no evidence of you ever being together. That’s where it ends.” Ronaldo said as he reached into his jacket and produced a newspaper clipping.

It was a small article of when he’d been found after “going missing” on that elementary field trip all those years ago. Above the article was a picture of his parents embracing his young self, and looking somewhat relieved.

“I kept this because it always seemed strange to me. There were accounts that you had been pushed off a cliff, yet from looking at this picture, you were just fine. Now I’m glad I did keep it, because it shows there was something unnatural about it.” Ronaldo said as he placed the clipping back into his jacket.

_“Yamato isn’t going to be happy about that.”_ Hibiki thought, remembering how everything concerning him and his family was supposed to be erased.

_“What won’t I be happy about?”_ Yamato responded immediately after the thought.

_“Oh, uh…”_ Hibiki said, almost cursing himself for not being able to separate his own thoughts and telepathic thoughts from each other, although Ronaldo continued on, unaware of the second conversation going on.

“You must be one of those people whose memories can’t be altered. Just like me.” Ronaldo said.

Oh, well that sure explained some things. Especially this situation, where Ronaldo was here talking to him now, and not having been “dealt with”, as Yamato had put it.

_“I’m coming back now.”_ Yamato said.

_“Uh, I don’t think that’s a good idea-“_ Hibiki said, only to be cut off by flutters from the window, which also caught Ronaldo’s attention.

The reaction was immediate, as Ronaldo stood up quickly. “Vampire!” Ronaldo hissed out as he hastily walked in between the bed and the window.

Yamato shifted, and casually leaned against the window frame. “Oh, it’s the detective.”

Ronaldo narrowed his eyes. “Yamato Hotsuin.” He said lowly, as if he had sworn.

Yamato frowned, and pushed away from the window. “You’re more trouble than I originally thought.”

Ronaldo tensed, and reached for the holster hidden by his jacket. “You can try to kill me, but you won’t harm this child.”

_“I’m not a child.”_ Hibiki said with a pout, luckily Ronaldo’s back was turned, so he didn’t see.

Yamato cast a glance his way. _“Yes you are.”_

_“I’m older than-“_ Hibiki said, but was cut off when the door suddenly opened.

“Kuze, is anything wrong, I sensed-“ Makoto said as she walked in, only to stop short when she noticed that there were more people.

Yamato took this temporary distraction to seemingly teleport next to Hibiki. Ronaldo could only blink, and then hurriedly put his back to the wall, although he had his hand on the gun now, he couldn’t fire it off now that Hibiki was in the crossfire, and also…

“Makoto Sako.” Ronaldo said, causing Makoto to flinch. “Human up until that accident of yours.” He continued.

Makoto didn’t say anything, at least not verbally. _“Sir?”_

_“Remain calm.”_ Yamato said, and then spoke. “Why would I harm one of my own?” He said, and then shifted his body towards Hibiki, making Ronaldo tense further, and almost pull out his gun.

_“Liar.”_

_“Hush.”_

“I won’t let you turn him.” Ronaldo said, stance firm. Although inwardly, he was slightly panicking.

“I can’t turn what already is.” Yamato said, and suddenly ripped the oxygen mask off of Hibiki’s face.

Immediately, the scent of blood assaulted Hibiki’s senses, and he quickly grabbed the mask and put it back onto his face, (at the cost of a sharp jolt to his side), but the damage had been done. Ronaldo had seen how Hibiki’s fangs grew from bloodlust, and devastation spread across his face. Meanwhile, Makoto and Yamato both frowned.

_“…Hibiki. Did you forget to eat?”_ Yamato said, tone heavy.

_“…No.”_ Hibiki said, averting his gaze.

_“Kuze, that isn’t healthy.”_ Makoto said, almost startling Hibiki since he hadn’t been prepared to hear Makoto.

The silent conversation was interrupted when Ronaldo spoke. “I suppose I have no more reason to be here anymore.” He said, shoulders slightly slumped.

“Who says you’ll be going anywhere?” Yamato said, tone threatening.

“I’m well known among the police and several other groups. My disappearance would raise a few alarms.” Ronaldo said, tone unwavering.

Yamato gave a frown, fangs slightly visible. Then he turned to Makoto. “Sako.”

Without another word, Makoto stepped away from the door, allowing Ronaldo to walk out, but not before casting one last glance at Hibiki.

With the door shut, the atmosphere became lighter, until Yamato and Makoto both turned their heads toward Hibiki, making him remember that other problem.

“Now that that problem is out of the way for the time being, you need to feed.” Yamato said as Makoto headed for the nearby closet, and opened it to reveal his clothes and hoodie, which had miraculously survived the explosions. It had also apparently been cleaned, as it didn’t look like what Hibiki went through.

Makoto shifted the clothes to the side to reveal his flask, similar to Yamato’s, except engraved with a tiger design. She then uncapped it, only to pause.

“It’s empty.” Makoto said as she turned it upside down.

“Considering how humans aren’t able to open those flasks, I suppose you forgot to refill it again?” Yamato said, giving Hibiki a strong look.

_“Maybe.”_ Hibiki said, giving a slight smile. Yamato’s gaze cooled a few degrees. _“Okay, yes.”_

Yamato’s features remained firm, but then softened as he gave a sigh. “For now you may drink from my flask.” Yamato said as he took out his flask, uncapped it, and then handed it to Hibiki.

Hibiki moved the oxygen out of the way, his fangs once again elongating. Then he began to drink until the hunger subsided. Yamato took back his flask without another word and put it away after capping.

Hibiki’s fangs receded, and he put the mask onto his face, and then relaxed into the pillows. The day’s events had really worn him out.

“Now, since that’s been dealt with.” Yamato said as he turned to Makoto. “Sako, what’s the status on the transfer?”

Makoto straightened up. “Ah, yes. The paperwork has been filled out, all he needs to do is stay the night, as per the hospital’s standard policy for minor injuries related to the situation.”

_“I hardly call injuries from explosions and debris falling on me minor.”_ Hibiki said.

“That’s what all the hospital staff will remember from this incident. They also think the transfer is to move you to a secure location so you will be protected from terrorists.” Yamato said.

_“Oh right, your voodoo mind powers.”_

Yamato decided not to comment on Hibiki’s choice of words, having already done so several times in the past weeks.

“Sir.” Makoto said, cutting in.

“Yes?”

“Perhaps we should assign a guard outside this room.”

“Yes, that seems like the appropriate decision. We don’t want anymore… ‘well-meaning’ people to come in here.” Yamato said as he began to head for the window. “And make sure to tell them not to let anyone in here. For now, I will begin preparations for Hibiki’s arrival.” With that, Yamato shifted and flew out the window.

“You should rest now, you deserve it.” Makoto said as she headed out the door.

And Hibiki did just that, letting his eyes close, and then falling asleep a few minutes later. Had he stayed awake for just a minute longer, he would have seen something white fly into the room.

…..

The next morning, Hibiki woke up feeling not refreshed, and in just as much pain as he was the night before. Luckily, he didn’t have to wait long in agony, as the door opened to reveal Otome, followed by several other people wearing yellow uniforms, and wearing cloth masks over their eyes.

Just before the door was closed, Hibiki caught a glimpse of someone in the dark JPs uniform standing outside.

“Oh Hibiki, you’re awake. I was hoping you would still be asleep. You’re in a lot of pain right now, aren’t you?” Otome said as she moved closer.

Hibiki tried to smile, but winced. _“Yeah.”_

“Well, we’re going to have to sedate you now. We need to put the least amount of stress on your body.” Otome said as she was handed a needle filled with a clear liquid. Then she put to Hibiki’s arm and pushed the plunger down.

_“Sure. I probably need that now.”_ Hibiki said, the last thing he saw before succumbing to darkness was Otome’s gentle smile.

…

Hibiki drifted in an endless blackness, feeling nothing, and disconnected from the outside world. Although occasionally he would hear distorted murmurs, but those passed as soon as they were heard.

Hibiki vaguely wondered how much longer he’d be here, when all of a sudden the blackness became a sea of stars that surrounded him. It was quite beautiful, and reminded Hibiki of the night sky he saw when he went camping with Daichi a few years back in the countryside, where the city lights didn’t reach.

Hibiki looked around in amazement, and then turned when a group of stars began shining brighter than the rest. The formation looked familiar to him, and he could almost place the name when-

_Shining One_

With a gasp, Hibiki shot up, eyes wide open. He looked around, and noticed he was all alone in a room. Hibiki sighed, and then began to take note of himself. Nothing hurt any more, and after a few flexes of his limbs, confirmed that the lack of pain was real. It was almost as if yesterday’s events were all just a dream.

Then Hibiki noted his clothes folded neatly in a pile next to the bed he was lying on. When he picked up his hoodie, he noticed there was a tear on the back of his hoodie that had been sewn up. The tear hadn’t been there yesterday, and Hibiki now knew that yesterday’s events had happened.

Hibiki sighed, and got off from the bed. Then he took his clothes and walked into the adjacent bathroom to change into them. As he stripped, something caught his eye. There were scars, they didn’t litter his whole body and were few in number, but one particular scar caught his attention.

It was pretty large, about the size of his fist, it was also dangerously close to where his heart was. Then Hibiki turned around, looked in the mirror, and saw an equally sized scar on his back.

‘I wonder what happened.’ Hibiki thought as he got dressed. Once he was done, he walked back into the room to see Otome waiting, and holding a fairly thick folder.

“Oh Hibiki, I see you don’t have any problems moving around.”

“Yeah, it’s almost as if I never got hurt in the first place, although the scars say otherwise.”

Otome’s smile faltered for just a moment at the last comment. “Yes, you were very lucky to get out alive.”

“Why do mean?” Hibiki asked, confused.

Otome opened the folder and flipped a few pages. “According to the back-up team when they arrived, you were buried under rubble. When they dug you out, you had been impaled right through by rebar, and was barely breathing. Fortunately it missed your vital organs, but almost punctured your lung.”

‘So that’s where it came from.’ Hibiki thought as he lifted a hand to where the scar was. 

“The team pulled you free and healed what they could, but they had to stop when the human rescue team was getting close.” At this, Otome paused and gave a soft smile. “Your friends were very worried about you.”

Oh. He forgot about them until now, having been unconscious and in pain the entire time. “Are they okay?” Hibiki said, hand dropping.

“Yes. You managed to get everyone out safely and unharmed. Coupled that with the fact that you managed to kill and survive 15 Dubhes, the chief was very pleased.”

“Where is he right now?” Hibiki said as he ran a hand through his hair, and then slightly grimaced when he felt dried flakes of blood. He would need to shower later.

Otome cast her eyes downwards. “Oh, about that. The chief wanted me to bring you to him after I check you over.”

Somehow, Hibiki didn’t like how she said that, and once the checkup was done, they ended up in front of his room, where a muted conversation was going on inside. Hibiki caught the familiar scents of two people, which was confirmed when he opened the door.

He was immediately embraced by his friends as he walked into the room, and greeted by cries of joy.

“Hibiki! You’re okay!” Daichi said as he squeezed hard.

“We thought we’d lost you in those explosions.” Io said, a few tears streaking down her face.

“Yeah, we thought those zombie things got you.” Daichi said as he pulled away, and Hibiki immediately stiffened.

“I’ll leave you three to…talk.” Yamato said, having been there the whole time. At that, he walked out the room and closed the door.

“How much did you see?” Hibiki said, voice quiet.

Io took a step back and wiped the tears from her face. “When the first explosion went off, there was enough light to see for an instant, but we saw that monster on the tracks.”

“Yeah. So we tried to get a hold of you and escape, but then a crazy gust of wind blew us into the crowd!” Daichi said with an amazed expression.

There was a moment of silence before Hibiki spoke. “That was… me.”

Both Io and Daichi gave each other a glance, before the former spoke. “What do you mean?”

Hibiki turned away from them. “Because I’m…” Hibiki closed his eyes and tensed. “A vampire.” He said, and then waited for the backlash.

A heavy cloud descended upon them, and no one spoke. Now Hibiki felt like he was going to be sick, because his friends were going to abandon-

Suddenly Daichi cut in. “That’s cool! So you sparkle in the sunlight?” Daichi said with a goofy smile.

At once the heavy cloud was dispersed as Io giggled. Even Hibiki himself couldn’t help but give an exasperated laugh as he turned around and gave Daichi a playful shove.

“Daichi, you know I don’t sparkle.” Hibiki said, giving a slight smile, and so very glad that the potential nightmare was averted.

“No wait. Remember that time when the class rep accidentally dropped an open bottle full of glitter on Hibiki?” Io said as her smile grew.

“Oh right!” Daichi said as he turned to Hibiki. “You spent weeks trying to get it all out of your hair.” Daichi said, giving Hibiki a playful smile, which turned into a mischievous smirk as Daichi latched onto Hibiki. “Io, quick! Get out your glitter makeup and we can make him sparkle again!” Daichi said, laughing as Hibiki wrestled himself free.

Soon, the laughter mellowed out, and smiles still held strong on all of their faces.

“So, what happens now?” Daichi said as he discretely tried to brush glitter makeup onto Hibiki’s face, but was immediately thwarted when the brush was taken away and handed back to Io, who put it back into the case with a sheepish smile.

“That all depends on what you’re willing to do.” Yamato said, causing the three to jump, and making Io and Daichi visibly nervous.

Hibiki frowned slightly. “What did you say to them?”

“Just that they wouldn’t ever see or remember you again if they acted poorly”. Yamato said as he crossed his arms, and gave Io and Daichi strong gazes. Although Hibiki could tell that Yamato was mildly impressed and surprised.

“Does he have crazy voodoo mind powers or something?” Daichi whispered, causing Hibiki to try to stifle his laugh.

Yamato’s eye twitched, showing he had heard, but decided to ignore it since it would get him nowhere. “As I’ve said, you’re allowed to make your own decisions, although there are only two choices. You can be cattle-“

“Please don’t call them cattle.”

“-or you can be turned.” Yamato finished, the interruption not bothering him.

“T-turned? You mean become a vampire?” Daichi said, looking unsure.

“I wouldn’t mind allowing Hibiki some of my blood.” Io said, blushing slightly. “But I’m not sure about becoming a vampire.”

“Yeah, and I don’t think I want him biting me.” Daichi said, gesturing to Yamato.

“I won’t be the one to turn you, Hibiki will.” Yamato said.

“Me?” Confusion spread across Hibiki’s face.

“Yes. Only purebloods are able to successfully turn humans, and you are a pureblood. There is also the fact that your companions would most likely be more at ease during the process if you were the one turning them.”

“Well, I would feel safer if it was Hibiki.” Io said, although her tone was still unsure.

“You do not have to make a decision immediately. Take some time to think it over. Sako took a month to decide.” Yamato said as he turned around and left the room.

The three were left to themselves in moderate silence, until Daichi broke it. “Wait, you mean that stern looking lady used to be human?”

…

So after a few hours of talking, where Hibiki told them of what happened the past few weeks, and what was going on now, Makoto came in to tell Daichi and Io that it was time for them to leave.

Io took the chance to ask what it was like to be turned, and Makoto responded that it was a different experience for everyone, but it was nothing to be afraid of. With that said, Daichi and Io bid Hibiki goodbye until tomorrow, while Hibiki went to go wash himself off.

Hibiki still found it somewhat startling to see the scars on his body, but there wasn’t much he could do about it except get used to it.

And so the day blurred into the next one, and the morning passed by in the blink of an eye.

…

Hibiki glanced out of the corner of his eye and almost laughed when he saw Daichi attempting to drink a milkshake faster than him, only to get a brain freeze as a result. Oh the benefits of being a vampire, being able to gain resistance to ice was nice in this case.

They had decided to hang out after school to sort of celebrate him being okay after the incident, since Hibiki hadn’t received any get well gifts. He hadn’t minded, and was grateful that Yamato’s sources was able to prevent his identity from being known. That would have been too much of a headache had everyone known.

Now Hibiki was pleasantly relaxing with his friends, no longer burdened by the need to choose. Although now that he had told his friends, Yamato now wanted him to be back earlier since he didn’t need to keep up the “human façade” anymore. He didn’t mind, since he could still be with his friends instead of having to be away from them for good.

Hibiki was broken from his thoughts when Io spoke up. “Is that, Yamato?” Io said as she looked out the window next to them. Hibiki followed her gaze, and sure enough, it was Yamato, who was easily walking through the crowd.

“I wonder what he’s doing here. It’s not time for you to go yet.” Daichi said, the brain freeze having passed.

“I should probably see what he’s up to.” Hibiki said as he got up.

“You go do that. That guy still scares me, and…” Daichi rubbed his head sheepishly. “I still haven’t made my decision yet.”

“Same here.” Io said, expression downcast.

Hibiki gave a small smile. “You don’t need to worry. Take all the time you need. Well, see you tomorrow.” Hibiki said as he began to walk out the restaurant.

Once outside, Hibiki took a few minutes to catch up to Yamato. It was easy to catch up the other since Yamato was still wearing his usual clothing.

Upon noticing Hibiki, Yamato gave a nod of acknowledgement and slowed his pace. “Hibiki.”

“You’re not usually out and about.” Hibiki said as he began to walk alongside Yamato.

“I wanted to see if there were more like you. Abandoned for being born a certain way, yet containing immense potential. Sadly, it was just a waste of time.” Yamato said as he shook his head. _“Fortunately, I was able to observe humans interacting with one another.”_

Hibiki looked at Yamato. _“You don’t talk with other humans?”_

_“The only humans I ever interact with are ones that are causing problems for the clan, or have stumbled upon our society. The interactions are never pleasant.”_

Hibiki looked forward and hummed in thought. “That’s probably because they were scared. Humans, or people in general will usually react badly when faced with something they thought didn’t exist.” Hibiki turned back to Yamato and smiled. “Maybe if you didn’t wear that weird clothing, and wore something nice, people would be more excepting.”

“You aren’t one to talk about choice of clothing.” Yamato said, grabbing one of the hood ears, which was promptly tugged back.

“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with my hoodie! Although, I should probably go get a new one. I’m surprised it’s still in one piece after what it’s been through.” Hibiki said as he brushed his fingers against the worn edge of the ear.

Yamato didn’t respond immediately, having turned his gaze to the spot on Hibiki’s back, where the sewn tear was slightly visible. “You will have time to look for a new one, since you will be taking a break from missions.”

Hibiki dropped the hoodie ear in surprise. “What? Why?”

“You did enough dealing with the Dubhe, and almost died. So I want you to rest your body to ensure that you will fully recuperate.”

“Huh, what will I do with all this free time now?”

Yamato didn’t say anything for a moment, making Hibiki think the conversation was over, until Yamato spoke. “I will allow your companions to visit you at the nest.”

Hibiki eyebrow rose. “What brought this on? Usually you’re against hu- people from wandering around.”

Yamato seemed almost hesitant in his wording. “They… are the exception. It will also allow them to see our way of life and accept the decision change.”

Hibiki really wondered if Yamato meant something else when he said “exception”, but decided to let it go and walk quietly beside him. It wasn’t like that for long, as they walked in front of an eatery, they were approached by a bald man.

“Hey there! Come try some free samples!” The man said as he held up a tray with small paper cups full of takoyaki. Hibiki smiled mischievously as he took a cup, while Yamato tried to decline, but the man wouldn’t have it and pushed a cup into Yamato’s hands. “You don’t have to be so shy.” The man said as he gave a big smile, and then went off to hand out more samples.

Yamato merely looked at the two takoyaki balls in the cup, and Hibiki knew he would need to push Yamato into eating it.

“You can’t eat it?” Hibiki said, trying to keep his eagerness out of his voice.

“No, I can. I just don’t find what’s so appealing about this human food.”

Hibiki decided to urge him on. “You should try it, it’s good.”

“Very well, I’ll taste just one, since it seems like you would keep persisting on the matter.” Yamato said as he plopped one of them into his mouth and began to chew. “See, nothing special about this human fo-“ Yamato stopped short, disbelief beginning to show on his face.

Yamato quickly swallowed and then put the other in his mouth and ate that just as quick. Then he stared almost longingly at the cup in Hibiki’s hand. Hibiki smiled and let Yamato have it. Then the takoyaki was finished in an instant, and Yamato was left staring sullenly at the two empty paper cups.

“Well…?” Hibiki said, smile getting wider. He really wished he could have recorded the whole thing.

Yamato gave a short laugh, and then smiled. “Ever since you showed up, there’s been one surprise after another.”

“The world isn’t as closed as you think.”

“Then perhaps you should introduce me to more of it.”

“Maybe I will.” Hibiki said as he smiled warmly.

**Fate Level has now become 3**

_Passive skills are now usable. They can also be temporarily passed onto one’s familiar._

_...._

_...._

_...._

Extra  


Hibiki held his breath as he peeked around the corner of the corridor, and saw that it was all clear. He quickly let out his breath and then hurried down the corridor to the next turn and proceeded to do the same thing.

Hibiki was avoiding someone, and that someone was Fumi, who was increasing her attempts to corner him and do who knows what. He didn’t want to find out.

And so Hibiki was sneaking along the corridors, trying to get back to the safety of his room after having a checkup with Otome. He had been able to go back on missions after a week, but had been advised to take it easy.

It still didn’t change the fact that Fumi was after him. In any case, Hibiki gave a sigh of relief as the expansive room came into sight. All right, now all he needed to do was fly to his floor-

“Oh there you are.” Fumi suddenly said behind him.

Hibiki almost gave out a shriek, but refrained himself as he vaulted over the railing, which, had he been human, would have been a very stupid thing to do as the bottom was several floors down. As it was, he was a vampire and merely shifted.

Unfortunately, Fumi was right behind him, flying in the “catch prey” maneuver (one that he couldn’t do for some reason, the practice prey always slipped out of his grasp).

Hibiki squeaked, and pulled off a maneuver at least he could do, which was a barrel roll. Unfortunately, this caused him to miss his floor, but this didn’t deter Hibiki, as he switched from the roll into a glide to the nearest floor, which was where Yamato’s office was located coincidentally.

With that in mind, Hibiki increased his pace as he flew into the corridor leading to Yamato’s office. Hibiki could feel Fumi following after him, but then her presence began to fade away. Hibiki looked behind him to see that Fumi had stopped following him.

Hibiki slowed down to a casual speed, and continued on to Yamato’s office. He would hide there for a while.

Yamato merely only spared him a glance as he flew in. The occurrence was normal ever since he started coming in here when he had nothing to do, and Io and Daichi weren’t able to visit. Yamato didn’t care as long as Hibiki wasn’t bothering him.

Hibiki landed on the couch that was in the room, and decided he would take a small nap, when flutters drew his attention. A messenger bat flew into the room moments later and latched its feet onto the perch that was located on Yamato’s desk.

Then it hung from one foot as it extended the leg with the paper message out to Yamato. Paper messages were usually for important things, as telepathic messages couldn’t be recorded. Yamato untied the message and began to read it.

Now Hibiki didn’t really care about the note, but he was curious about whether he could hang by his feet like that. He hadn’t really tried since there hadn’t been any time, what with school, missions, and training, but now seemed like a good time to do it.

So, with a few flaps of his wings, he was able to land on top of the perch, causing Yamato to raise an eyebrow at him, and the messenger bat to look up at him. Hibiki paid both of them no mind, as he set his feet in place, and then let himself drop. Only, instead of the intended result of him hanging by his feet, he lost his grip and fell.

Hibiki didn’t have enough time to stop his fall as he landed on his back on the tabletop, letting out a small squeak in response. By now, Yamato had stopped writing and was giving him a small smile, while the bat seemed to be laughing at him, with those non-stop squeaks.

“So that’s why you have trouble with certain tasks.” Yamato said as he placed the message down.

_“What do you mean?”_ Hibiki said as he rolled onto his front.

“The muscles in your feet and legs have been stunted, so they’re not as strong as any usual bat. Here, look at his legs.” Yamato said as he gestured to the messenger bat. “What do you see?”

_“His legs are more defined….”_ Hibiki said as he tilted his head up to see the bat’s legs. _“And his feet are a little bit bigger than mine.”_

“Yes. Unfortunately, there’s nothing with can do even with our advanced healing. At most, you will be support in capture missions.”

_“That’s fine. My size and color wouldn’t-“_ Hibiki said before a flash of bright light interrupted him. His first instinct was to fly away, which wasn’t easy since his vision was slightly blinded. So he ended up flying into Yamato’s arm, but he didn’t let himself fall as he grabbed onto the fabric and climbed up to Yamato’s shoulder. Then he turned to face the source of the light.

“Fumi…” Yamato said as he blinked a few times. The light had really hurt his eyes, but he didn’t show it. “I suppose you didn’t come here to give a status report.”

Fumi seemed to ignore him as she let the camera hang around her neck, and then took out a notebook and began writing into it. All the while, she was audibly mumbling to herself. “Hm, reaction to light stimuli is quite resistant. Compared to the control…” At this, Fumi cast a glance at the messenger bat, which had fallen and was visibly twitching.

“Fumi.” Yamato said with a stern glare.

Fumi merely gave a bored look, unaffected by the glare. “Oh don’t worry. I’ve gathered enough data to study it.” She said as she put the notebook back into her jacket and left.

_“Why do you put up with her?”_ Hibiki said after his vision returned to him.

“As long as she does her work well, everything else is of no concern to me.”

_Hibiki gave the bat equivalent of a hum. Then he waved his wing in the direction of the messenger bat. “I don’t think he’s getting up anytime soon.”_


	5. Fate Level 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, here’s another chapter for everyone, and before I forget, I realize I may have left out some details. They aren’t really that important, but I am basing my fiction on them, so I might as well say them. Yamato’s bat form has a wingspan of 18 inches (about 46 cm), while Hibiki has a wingspan of 10 inches (25 cm). He is the smallest of the coven, while Yamato is the largest. The other vampires range from being slightly larger than Hibiki, to being slightly smaller than Yamato.
> 
> The next detail is that the story started a little under a month and a half before summer break begins for Hibiki and his friends. Other than that, I can’t think of any other details at the moment, but more may come.

Hibiki thought all of this was really cliché. In a very dark room, pentagram like symbols on the walls and floor, and the only light sources being candles littered all over the room. The only thing preventing the entire thing from becoming even weirder was that everyone, that being Yamato, Makoto, Fumi, Otome, Io, Daichi, and himself, were all dressed normally. Well, mainly the latter four, since Io and Daichi decided to come right after school, and Otome was wearing her doctor’s coat.

Everyone else was wearing the JPs uniform, and he was wearing his favorite bunny hoodie, which he probably shouldn’t, but Yamato said it would be okay, unless he was a messy biter.

That thought brought him back to what was happening at present. After nearly a month to think it over, Io and Daichi had decided that yes, they would choose to be turned. This was after the two slowly began to learn what Hibiki was doing all this time, and why he had been hospitalized. They were understandably upset at the last fact.

In any case, Otome was giving Daichi and Io painkillers so that the process would be less painful, while Yamato was busy laying down more of those pentagram thingies. Makoto was making sure that the room was secure, which was checking to see if the only door in the room was properly closed, and that the candles wouldn’t light anything on fire. Meanwhile, Fumi was busy writing in her notebook, although Hibiki wasn’t sure what.

Overall, Hibiki thought the process was slightly overcomplicated, and maybe a little bit weird. Mainly the candles and pentagram things. “What’s with the pentagrams and candles?” Hibiki said as he gestured to the entire room.

“The symbols you see around you are seals, not pentagrams. They are to muffle any surge of power that may result from the change.” Makoto said from near the door, trying to sound serious, but failed when Otome giggled.

“Yes, this does look like a cult ritual, but like Makoto mentioned, everything has a purpose. As for the candles, they’re mainly here for your friends to see.”

“What do you mean?” Io said, a touch of nervousness in her voice.

“Well, one of the instant effects after turning is sensitive sight. So we don’t want to hurt your eyes with bright lights. As for why we want you to be able to see, Fumi says it makes the process easier.”

At the sound of her name, Fumi stopped writing and turned toward them. “In previous years, vampires turned in complete darkness performed horribly. This was a result of them being under a state of anxiety as a result of-“ Fumi rambled on before Daichi cut in.

“Whoa, slow down. Uh, could you repeat that slowly, in easier terms?” Daichi said sheepishly.

Fumi gave him a look of annoyance, but complied. “In summary, the human before being turned is fearful at not being able to see. This fear carries over to when they become a vampire, and continually interferes with their responsibilities.”

“O-oh.” Daichi said, although Hibiki wasn’t sure if Daichi understood all of that.

Hibiki spoke up so things wouldn’t drift into awkward silence. “It still looks like we’re summoning Satan.” He said jokingly.

At this, Yamato just finished drawing up the last seal and walked toward the group. “This array of seals would be too simple, and we would only summon him in times of emergencies.” Yamato said, tone not even joking or sarcastic.

Hibiki’s eyes widened just slightly. He had only been joking when he said that, and Yamato took it seriously. Now Hibiki really wished that they were summoning Satan, just to see what he looked like.

On the other hand, while Daichi and Io were just as surprised as Hibiki, they weren’t as wishful as Hibiki in wanting Satan to be summoned.

Meanwhile, Yamato continued on as if what he said didn’t have any notable value. “Sako, is the room secure?”

“Yes, and I’ve informed the guards outside not to let anyone in.”

“Good.” Yamato said and then turned to Otome. “Yanagiya?”

“The painkillers should be taking affect now, so they shouldn’t feel any pain.”

“Very well, we can now begin. Who will go first?” Yamato said as he turned his gaze toward Io and Daichi.

Neither of them spoke up for a moment, until Daichi stepped forward. “I guess I’ll go.” Hibiki stepped in front of Daichi, but didn’t immediately do or say anything, since he was unsure of how to go about this. “So… how should we do this?” Daichi said with a nervous chuckle. “Should we get up close and make it quick or…” Daichi said as he trailed off.

Hibiki gave a smile in response. “You make it sound as if we’re about to make out.”

At this Daichi blushed, and Io tried to stifle a giggle. “No, I just thought- “ Daichi said as he began to babble.

Hibiki laughed and stopped Daichi from going further. “You should probably take off your scarf so it doesn’t get dirty.”

“Ah, right.” Daichi said as he unwound the scarf from his neck, and then gave it to Makoto who offered to hold it.

After that was done, Hibiki stepped even closer to Daichi until there was only an inch of space between them, and once again Hibiki didn’t act immediately. Instead, opting to try to get a hold of something with this hands. “So, where should I put my hands?” He said as his hands hovered over Daichi’s sides.

“Now who’s being awkward?” Daichi said as he smirked.

“Oh shut up. This is my first time.” Hibiki said playfully, but then paused when he realized what he said. “No wait that came out wrong.”

This caused Io and Otome to start laughing softly. “Oh the joys of boy’s love.” Otome said playfully.

“O-Otome!” Makoto stuttered out, blushing profusely.

“What perverted things are you coming up with Makoto?” Hibiki said jokingly as he turned his head at Makoto.

“I-I’m not-“ Makoto said, very flustered.

“Can we get on with this?” Fumi said suddenly, annoyance in her tone.

“Right.” Hbiki said as he took a deep breath and rested his hands on Daichi’s hips. Then he slowly went for Daichi’s neck, mouth opening, and fangs elongating at the sound of blood pumping through the vein. Hibiki hesitated for a moment, before his fangs pierced the skin, causing Daichi to stiffen and let out a small gasp.

Then Hibiki felt liquid flow from his fangs, as he willed the venom to produce, just like Yamato said. The he waited a few seconds before pulling away, with Otome at the ready and already healing the bite closed.

Hibiki took the time to lick his fangs clean, and tasting a few drops of Daichi’s blood in the process. ‘Huh. I guess Daichi does match the description of normal Japanese people where the takoyaki blood comes from.’ Hibiki thought as he closed his mouth, fangs still showing slightly, but no longer red with blood.

“Thanks.” Daichi said to Otome, and then walked next to Io. “It’s like getting a shot, except in the neck. So there’s nothing to worry about.” Daichi said as he smile reassuringly at Io.

In response, some of the tension in Io’s shoulders disappeared. With a nod, she stood in front of Hibiki, posture slightly more confident than before. Hibiki smiled, but then realized another challenge was presented before him. Unlike Daichi, Hibiki couldn’t get up as close as before because of Io’s…assets.

Although, since he was taller than Io, he could just lean toward her neck. So with that decided, he was going to proceed when he noticed Io’s hands wringed nervously. So in response, he took them into his hands and gave a reassuring squeeze. At once the remaining tension dissipated, and Hibiki proceeded normally.

The process was the same as before, and when Hibiki tasted Io’s blood, it tasted sweet, but not the same kind of sweet like the blood he liked. The blood seemed to have a sort of spice to it, while Io’s blood was just sweet.

‘Well, she is a virgin.’ Hibiki thought as he licked his fangs and was about to close his mouth when something was shoved into it.

“Hold on, I want to get a sample of your venom.” Fumi said as she held a glass with cloth pulled over the opening to Hibiki’s fangs.

“Ah, oka, shure.” Hibiki said as best as he could, and then allowed the venom to flow again. Once the glass was to a level she was happy with, she pulled the glass away without another word, causing some of the venom still flowing to drip onto the floor. Hibiki immediately stopped it, and wiped away the remaining drops from his mouth. Then Fumi turned sharply and walked to the door and unlocked it, then she left.

“You’re welcome.” Hibiki said as he called after Fumi, while his fangs receded back to their normal size.

“Well…I don’t feel any different.” Daichi said as he rubbed his neck, where the bite used to be.

“Of course not. The venom will slowly change you, otherwise an instant change would cause you immense pain.” Yamato said.

“In the meanwhile, these are for you two.” Otome said as he handed Io and Daichi each a bottle. “They contain painkiller laced blood pills, which will numb the pain, which will mostly come from your mouth as your fangs begin to replace your canines. They will also curb your hunger until you’re ready to feed properly.”

“Oh, okay.” Io said, not looking forward to drinking blood.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be surprised at what blood tastes like to vampires.” Hibiki said.

“Really? What do I taste like?” Daichi said, interested.

“Takoyaki.” Hibiki said, smiling, while Yamato perked up just a little. Only Hibiki noticed this, as he refrained from laughing.

“What? No way. You’re pulling my leg aren’t you?” Daichi said, tone light hearted, but doubtful.

“No, it’s actually Yamato’s favorite.” Hibiki said, causing Daichi to pause and cast a nervous glance at Yamato, which he noticed.

“We are fully stocked, so I do not have to feed from you unless stock suddenly runs short, and only with your consent.” Yamato said, which eased some of Daichi’s nervousness. “As for you Hibiki, you will be exempt from missions until these two are fully turned. In the meantime, you will watch over them.”

“Okay. I can do that.” Hibiki said. That had taken off some of the worry from his shoulders, since he would be able to make sure that nothing happened to them.

“For now, it’s best if you two went home. Nothing should happen immediately, and if something does, you will be able to sense their distress. We’ll make arrangements to determine your living arrangements after you’ve fully turned.” Makoto said.

At that, they all left the room as some JPs members came in to clean everything up.

…

As it was, nothing did happen, and the night shifted to day, and school passed by without anything noteworthy happening.

Once school ended, they decided to head to the nest to have Otome check on their process. The decided to take a shortcut through the park in order to get, all the while talking amongst themselves.

“So really the only thing hurting are my teeth and head. The lights are brighter than usual, so they’re giving me a headache, but otherwise I’m fine.” Daichi said while giving a toothy grin, allowing Hibiki to see that Daichi’s canines were on their way to becoming slender and pointier.

“It’s the same for me, and I’m starting to smell things I wasn’t able to before.” Io said as she wrinkled her nose slightly.

Hibiki was going to say something, but the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps made him turn to see a man in a striped suit with a hat and glasses. “I wonder where he’s off to in a hurry.” Hibiki said as the man got closer.

“Maybe he’s late for something import- gah!” Daichi said as the man reach them, and instead of just rushing passed, he grabbed Daichi’s scarf and continued to walk briskly, all while dragging Daichi along.

Io and Hibiki were just stunned, not expecting that to happen. “Hibiki, what should we do?” Io said, tone slightly frantic.

“We should go after them.” Hibiki said as he and Io began running after them.

…

They eventually ended up at an outdoor stage area, where Hibiki could see Daichi, the man, and someone familiar on the stage. When they got closer, Hibiki’s assumptions were proven true, and he could hear what they were saying.

“Yo Ronnie. I brought him here just like you asked.” The man in the suit said as he let go of Daichi’s scarf.

“I told you to convince the boy in the white jacket to come, not drag his friend here, and would you please stop calling me that ridiculous nickname.” Ronaldo said as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“What? You said you wanted to talk to the vampire boy, where here he is.” He said as Hibiki and Io got up onto the stage, but the comment made them and Daichi tense up.

“Joe!” Ronaldo said sharply, while looking nervously at Io and Daichi.

“It’s fine, they know.” Hibiki said, cutting in to make sure his friends didn’t reveal that they were turned.

“’He’ let you tell them?” Ronaldo said incredulously.

“Yes, I was able to convince him.” Hibiki said without wavering. It was slightly true, sort of.

At this, Ronaldo was taken aback, but then gave a small smile. “I supposed I misjudged you.” He said, and then gave a short sigh. “But would you at least hear me out?” Hibiki was unsure, but he didn’t want this meeting to go wrong, so he nodded, making Ronaldo smile genuinely. “Good, now I suppose introductions are in order. I am Ronaldo Kuriki.” He said to Daichi and Io.

“And I’m Yuzuru Akie, but everyone just calls me Joe. I’m also Ronaldo’s partner in crime.” Joe said with a big smile, causing Ronaldo to face palm.

“Joe, we’re detectives. Don’t go giving them the wrong idea.” Ronaldo said as he put his hand down.

“Well you’re the one being all shady about talking to him.” Joe said as he gestured to Hibiki.

“Speaking of which, my name is Hibiki, and these are my friends Io and Daichi.”

Suddenly, Joe got really close up to Hibiki. “Hm, you don’t look like a vampire.” Hibiki had to lean back so that his face was farther away from Joe’s.

“Joe, stop it. You’re making him nervous.” Ronaldo said as he pulled Joe away from Hibiki, who gave a sigh of relief and regained normal posture. “In any case, I just wanted to ask a favor. I used to have a mentor who began to get involved in vampire activities, but one day he just vanished. I just want to know what happened to him.” Ronaldo said, tone dropping low.

Hibiki recalled back to what Yamato had told him before, about humans being dealt with if they became a nuisance. He kept his reaction neutral, since he didn’t know what being ‘dealt with’ entailed. So with a nod, Hibiki said “sure, I think I can do that.”

Ronaldo’s face brightened. “Thank you. That would mean so much to me. Now I suppose we must go, and sorry for getting you dragged into this.” Ronaldo said, with the last comment directed toward Daichi and Io.

“Wait, I wanna see his fangs, just to make sure you really aren’t messing with me.” Joe said as he once again got in Hibiki’s personal space.

“I guess there’s no hahrm-“ Hibiki said before Joe began tugging on his fangs.

“Wow, they really are there, and they don’t seem to be coming out, so I guess they’re real.” Joe said as he finished “examining” Hibiki’s fangs. Hibiki quickly shut his mouth and shuffled away from Joe in response, while Joe continued grinning.

Ronaldo sighed and refrained from pinching the bridge of his nose again. Instead, he opted to take hold of Joe’s shoulders and push the other toward the exit, all while giving off a final farewell.

The three were left in moderate silence, until Hibiki spoke up. “It’s probably best not to tell Yamato about this.” They silently agreed.

…

The three made it to the nest without further incident, having to go through the Diet Building instead of the secret entrance. Io and Daichi weren’t at that point to be able to shift, and even if they could, their motor skills in bat form would take some getting used to.

Eventually, they made it to the infirmary where Io and Daichi were quickly assessed by Otome.

“Wow, you both seem to be coming along faster than normal.” Otome said as she wrote on a few papers.

“Is that bad?” Io said nervously.

“No, it just means you’re becoming a vampire faster than the normal rate.” At this, Otome paused in her writing, deep in thought. Then she continued on writing after a brief moment. “I guess Fumi was right, your venom is potent.”

Oh right, Fumi had taken some of his venom for study. Hibiki wondered if there was anything else different about his venom, when a shrill was heard in the air. Hibiki and Otome could hear it easily, but Io and Daichi took a moment to register the sound.

“W-what was that?” Daichi said as he put his hands up to his ears.

Otome hurridly began to put the papers away. “It’s our emergency alarm. We need to report to the Hall immediately.” With that, Otome finished placing everything away, and briskly walked out the infirmary, followed by the three.

The Hall was the expansive room, and when they got there, there was a flurry of movement. JPs members, both in human and bat form were seen running along all the levels, or flying through the air to different floors. Suddenly a large black bat approached them and shift, revealing it to be Yamato.

“Hibiki, Yanagiya. Report to the terminal. A new ghoul has been spotted in Osaka, and members there are currently engaging it. Shijima, Nitta. Report to the blood vault to help with the distribution of blood stock.” Yamato said, tone firm.

“W-we don’t get to go with Hibiki?” Daichi stuttered out, not liking how things were going so far. He almost gave out an “eep” when Yamato directed a cold look at him.

“Currently, you are not even on the level of a pup. You would only get in the way, and you wouldn’t want Hibiki to get hurt again would you?”

Truthfully, Hibiki thought that was a low blow, but he did agree somewhat. Io and Daichi were still more human than vampire at this point, so they wouldn’t be able to summon a Familiar or use skills. Luckily, he didn’t have to say anything as Io and Daichi reluctantly agreed.

“Fine. Hibiki, good luck.” Daichi said, as he began to head toward the vaults.

“Be safe.” Io said, and then followed after Daichi.

“Don’t worry, I will.” Hibiki called after them.

…

That’s what he had said, but after teleporting to Osaka via the terminal, and then heading to the ghoul site, he was met with the sight of a gargantuan ghoul the size of a –

“Truck!” Hibiki shouted as he dodged the incoming vehicle thrown his way. Once he was safely out of the way, he could get a good look at the ghoul.

It was nearly a story tall, with dark metal plating like skin. It also had pink spots littering across it’s gorilla like body. It also only had one eye, which suddenly looked at him and began glowing. Hibiki knew that wasn’t a good sign, and made to get out of the way when something grabbed his leg.

It was a pink wheel…thing, the size of a CD, with arms and legs. Before he could react, it exploded and sent him to the ground, wind knocked out of him.

“Hibiki!” Otome shouted worriedly.

“I’m fine!” Hibiki shouted back, only to realize after looking up that she wasn’t worried about the explosion, but the laser beam coming his way from the ghoul’s eye.

Fortunately, he was saved from further injury when someone rushed his way and yanked him by his hoodie to safety.

“Whoo! Nice save Keita!~” A feminine voice shouted.

“Tch. We need all the help we can get. Those JPs members already dropped like flies.” A male voice responded.

Once Hibiki was able to get up from the ground, he was able to see two people. A gruff looking boy, and a girl…in a very revealing outfit.

“Hey there.~ My name is Hinako, and this is Keita. Nice to meet you.~” She said with a wink.

“We don’t have time for this.” Keita said as he let out an exasperated sigh. “Whatever, just help us kill this thing.” Keita said as he charged at the ghoul.

Hibiki just knew this was going to be a long night as he summoned Byakko and prepared to fight.

…

Hibiki blinked as the light faded, and he was back at the terminal in Tokyo. He was dead tired on his feet, but he knew he couldn’t go straight to bed since he had to report to Yamato. Otome had stayed behind to tend to the wounded, so that left him to report everything.

With a sigh, Hibiki began to make his way toward Yamato’s office. Soon he reached the Hall, which was less busy than before, but still busy nonetheless. Occasional footsteps and flutters of wings could be heard as he began to head down the levels. He didn’t feel like flying, his arms were too sore from either falling on them or using them to hit the bombs and Merak (a name Hibiki kept hearing JPs members calling the new ghoul).

Suddenly flutters getting closer brought him out of his thoughts. He turned around just in time to see Makoto shift from her moderately sized, dark brown bat form.

“Oh good, I managed to catch up to you. I just came to inform you that Io and Daichi have gone home, but I did tell them of your success before you left.” Makoto said.

“Oh that’s good.” Hibiki said tiredly, but he did mean what he said.

Makoto looked at him with concern. “Are you alright Kuze?”

“I’m fine. Just dodging a lot of exploding minions, and trying to handle Byakko who went ballistic after the first blast.” Hibiki said, attempting to make light of it, but his tiredness prevented it.

“Explosions?” Makoto whispered softly to herself. “Should I call for a healer?” Makoto said, concern increasing.

“No, that’s alright. Otome was able to fully heal me. I’m just tired, so once I report to Yamato, I’ll head straight to bed.”

“You are sure…” Makoto said uncertainly.

“Yes.” Hibiki said as he gave a tired smile.

“Alright. Well…have a good night.” Makoto said, and then shifted and flew to another floor.

The smile on Hibiki’s face faded, and with a sigh, he continued his trek down to Yamato’s office. Eventually, he made it there after a good few minutes, and was met with the sight of a slightly ruffled Yamato, with a pile of messages next to him. It seems Hibiki wasn’t the only one to have a long night.

“Hey Yamato.”

Yamato nodded, a look of approval on his face. “You have succeeded once again. You cease to amaze me.”

“Nah, I just did my job, and I did have help this time.” Hibiki said, and then stifled an incoming yawn.

Yamato gave a slight frown in response. “Perhaps it is best if you rest before giving your report.”

“That…would be nice.” Hibiki said, eyes beginning to droop a little.

“Then rest well, and have a good night.”

Hibiki gave a nod, and was about to turn and walk out the door, when he remembered something. “Oh, before I forget. I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”

“What would that be?” Yamato said as he paused in his writing.

“What did you mean when you said nuisance humans would be ‘dealt with’?” Hibiki said as Yamato put his pen down in response and got up.

“So that’s what that was.” Yamato said, and Hibiki was about to ask what he meant when multiple flutters and squeaks interrupted him.

Hibiki looked up to see multiple messenger bats letting go of their perches on the ceiling and flying en mass out the room. Once they were all gone, Hibiki turned back toward Yamato, only to see the other right in front of him. Before he could react, Yamato took hold of his jaw with one hand, and moved his upper lip out of the way in order to examine the fangs.

“When I neared your male friend, I caught the scent of a foreign scent on his clothing. This would normally mean nothing since you three spend time around humans. What really caught my notice was that the same scent lingered on your fangs.” Yamato said as he brushed a gloved finger over a fang.

‘Uh oh. Maybe I should have washed my mouth when I got here.’ Hibiki thought as he was suddenly not tired.

“Tell me, is this person connected with that detective?” Yamato said as he let go of Hibiki’s jaw and rubbed his thumb against the finger that brushed Hibiki’s fang.

Hibiki nodded.

“Well, you can tell him that we don’t kill humans. That would make us no better than ghouls. Still, we need to make sure they don’t reveal or interfere with vampire activities. So the first measure would be to alter their memories, if that doesn’t work, we use ulterior means depending on the human. Ranging from brokering a deal, or isolating them.”

“Oh…” Hibiki said, with a brief moment of silence lingering between them. “You’re…not mad?”

“No.” Yamato said as he turned and walked back to his desk and sat down. “It was inevitable that the detective would approach you since he would have deemed you less tainted by us.” Hibiki didn’t quite know what to say to that, and didn’t have to as Yamato continued speaking. “Now I’m sure there is more to this?”

“Uh, yeah. Ronaldo said that his mentor disappeared one day.” Hibiki said.

“Hm, oh yes. That man. I was going to send someone to approach him, but like you said, he disappeared and hasn’t been seen or heard from since. Not even my best trackers can find him.” Yamato said, a touch of annoyance creeping into his features. “In any case, hopefully this information will allay the detective somewhat.” Yamato said as he went back to writing.

“Yeah…well, thanks.” Hibiki said as he left the office, not waiting for a reply.

Once the door closed, Hibiki leaned against it and let out a sigh. At least that had went moderately well, although he could have gone without the invasion of personal space. With that, he began to head back to his room.

**Fate Level has now become 4**

_Short distance teleporting to another is now possible._

_...._

_...._

_...._

Extra (Yamato)

After making sure there were no remaining ghouls lurking about, he dismissed Sako and Yanagiya for the night. They had done well on such short notice, since JPs was currently undermanned at the moment, forcing him to also participate in the mission to deal with the ghouls.

He didn’t mind, since it allowed him to encounter that unknown vampire, whose scent he was now tracking. The scent was human like, and if he didn’t know any better, he would have just dismissed the other as a normal human, but he knew what he saw.

This vampire intrigued him, they were able to survive this long without ever being detected until now. There was also the matter of his color and living status. Albino bats were rare, they also did not survive long due to their coloration, and living with humans would not be beneficial to their health, unless…

He arrived at a quiet neighborhood, and approached a certain house. He went to hang from a branch, and peered through the window. At once, Yamato could see that things weren’t right. This vampire was living with a human “coven”, and probably had lived with them their whole life thus far. Yet, there was a very obvious divide between the unknown vampire and his…caretakers.

It seemed they did not know their “son” was not like them. It also seemed that this vampire did not remain with these humans to feed off them, since he was eating human food, and there were no signs of blood draws on the humans.

Now he was even more perplexed, here were all these factors working against this other vampire, yet they continued to survive.

Hm, more observations would be needed. So within the minute, he informed Sako that he would be busy for the time being, and that any messages or paper work for him would be set aside accordingly. Then he went to a more hidden part of the tree and slept.

…

Morning arrived, and he was awakened by the sound of a door opening and closing. He opened his eyes and peered through the leaves to see the vampire leaving.

With upmost stealth, he followed the other without being seen, but it seems the other could sense him. Impressive. 

…

Hours passed, and he had been able to gather a fair amount of information. This vampire attended a school, which explained why his scent was so like that of a human. This vampire also did well in their classes, which was a boon in his mind. If this vampire were to be a part of his coven, he didn’t want a useless underling who couldn’t think for themselves.

There was also another matter that was solved, which was to determine the vampire’s level of restraint around blood. The test was simple enough to create, simply manipulating several people, and causing one to be injured a certain degree so that blood would be spilled.

The results were astounding, half his subordinates couldn’t manage that amount of restraint, and this vampire was far starved than them.

…

Now he felt even more confident that this vampire would fit in accordingly with his coven. All he would need to do is approach the other when they were alone, which proved to be a problem.

This vampire seemed to have “friends”, a concept foreign to him. Perhaps they were just cattle, as it wasn’t uncommon for vampires to reveal themselves to those they trusted, and feed from them regularly.

To test this, he sent a sharp, but weak cutting wind at the female’s hand, slashing it. The results were unexpected. The vampire made the extra effort to restrain himself, and seemed to take displeasure at the thought of feeding from his companions.

Then how was this vampire allaying his hunger? Even with the amount of restraint this vampire displayed, it didn’t mean he could go years without feeding.

…

Oh? Store bought animal blood. That explained some things, but it was a poor substitute. Blood from freshly killed prey would have better suited him.

Either way, he had enough information for now, except for one important thing. He needed to see the other’s battle instincts.

“Cerberus, fire a simple Agi at him.”

Extra (Makoto)

She quickly flew to her destination along with several other members. Yamato had ordered them to quickly get to the scene. The Dubhe ghouls were spotted in the area.

This worried her greatly, for Fumi’s report were nothing to laugh at. Many other members had died by these ghouls, and Kuze was by himself trying to fend himself off. Well, not completely alone, he did have that magnificent beast of a Familiar, and that assured her only slightly.

Although she couldn’t jump to conclusions just yet. He did survive all these years relying on himself and his Familiar, and his mission success rate was simply astounding. Most newcomers to the vampire world normally suffered moderate injuries when going on missions, and that was when they were working with other vampires.

On the other hand, Kuze defied all her expectations, and she was beginning to agree with Yamato that perhaps Kuze could handle himself, but the situation still worried her.

She shook her head. Now was not the time to be thinking about such things. She needed to get there as soon as possible.

…

Soon, their destination came into view, as well as a crowd of people and emergency vehicles. Suddenly, an explosion shook the ground, causing the crowd nearly burst into panic had it not been for the emergency crews. Worry overcame her, but she composed herself and only took a moment of thought before she directed her team to a ventilation shaft that led into the station.

The sight that met them was of utter destruction. The majority of the ceiling had collapsed, covering the platform and the rails. Rubble and debris were everywhere, and it was difficult to determine where-

Suddenly some rubble began to move, she and her team shifted in preparation for attack, but what greeted them was not a ghoul, but Byakko, who growled momentarily before recognizing them.

The Familiar did not seem to be doing well, as parts of its body were fizzing into light particles. It was covered in dust, soot, and blood. Blood? She did not know Familiars could bleed, but with dawning horror, she realized the blood wasn’t coming from it, but from-

“Kuze!” She shouted as she rushed to the teen nearly buried by rubble. There was a pool of blood, and it was beginning to become bigger. Before they could start to move the rubble, she met her gaze with Byakko’s.

It seemed to tell her “help him”.

She gave a nod. “We’ll do what we can.” She said, and Byakko closed its eyes in response, and allowed itself to disappear in a shimmer of light. She couldn’t quite enjoy the beauty of the light, as she and several other members began to move rubble.

They soon had their answer to where the blood was coming from, as some of the members gasped at the sight before them. Kuze was on his back, and impaled right through by a nearly three foot long, 2 inch thick rebar. Blood soaked what was once a white hoodie, now crimson red.

Kuze wasn’t doing any better, as blood dripped from his mouth, and his breathe came out in painful rasps.

“Kuze, can you hear me?” She said, but got no response. At least he was breathing, that was something she could work with, but she didn’t know how long that would last.

Before she could issue an order, loud thumps and drilling noises met their ears, followed by shouting. This wasn’t good, the humans were nearly through, and they wouldn’t be able to gently free Kuze without being caught in the process. So…

_“Sir.”_

_“Yes?”_ Yamato responded back, and she could tell there was a certain edge to it.

_“Kuze is in critical condition, with the worse of his injuries being impalement, but we don’t have enough time to extricate him gently, and then heal him. The human emergency crews are almost through the rubble.”_

Yamato didn’t respond for a moment, and she almost thought that the connection was cut when he spoke. _“Free him quickly and heal what you can, then leave the area.”_

_“Understood.”_ She responded, and was now dreading what was to come. “You, make rebar as short as possible.” The directed member nodded and proceeded to heat and cool the metal as rapidly as he cool, causing the affected area to shatter.

With that done, she turned to another member. “Help me pull him free at the count of three.” At that, she moved to put her hands under Kuze’s torso while the member put his hands under Kuze’s shoulders.

She turned to the remaining members. “Prepare to heal the wound and clean up the blood. We don’t want any evidence of his critical injuries left behind.” The remaining members gave a sharp nod.

Now was the moment to come. She locked eyes with the member helping her, and they both nodded.

“1” The atmosphere gets heavy.

“2” Everyone’s muscles tense.

“3” With as much force as they could muster, they successfully pull him free, but what they don’t expect is for Kuze to cry out in pain, eyes wide open.

At once the healers began to heal the wound, while the cleaners make the blood dissipate. Meanwhile, she was trying to get a response from Kuze.

“Kuze, can you hear me?” She said softly as she held him.

He didn’t respond, and seemed to look at her with clouded eyes before succumbing to unconsciousness again.

“Ma’am, we’re finished.” The healer said.

She lay Kuze gently against now blood free rubble and nodded at the other members. “The Chief instructs us to leave him to the human rescue crew. For now, we vacate the area.”

At that, they all shifted and escaped into the shadows, just as a beam of light lit up the area.


	6. Fate Level 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’d like to point out that I may use Japanese honorifics to make social interactions or the like more obvious to the reader.

A week had passed, and things had gone smoothly with Daichi’s and Io’s change. They had fully turned three days quicker than most others turned, as Yamato had said.

During this three day time period, they were taught by Yamato, Hibiki, and Otome at random intervals since the teachers Yamato had assigned hadn’t been ready when Daichi and Io had fully turned.

Needless to say, they preferred Otome over Yamato teaching them when Hibiki was busy doing missions, and he was inclined to agree. Yamato’s teaching methods were a little too firm, and maybe over the top. Although that last one was somewhat Hibiki’s fault, still, to be fair, he didn’t expect Yamato to take his word for it.

Overall, the week was light hearted, and the only downside to it all was that Yamato told them they had to break off contact with their parents once they reached their mid-twenties, which was when they would start to age slower than humans.

When Hibiki asked why he had to break off contact with his parents, Yamato merely gave him a look and said “would you have wanted to keep contact with them?”

His answer had been no, prompting Io and Daichi to voice their concerns. He immediately replied that he and his parents hadn’t been getting along well in recent years. That had eased their worries somewhat, but since there was no more contact between him and his parents, they couldn’t do much about it anymore.

…

“It’s finally summer! We’re free to do whatever we want.” Daichi shouted while pumping his fists into the air, while the three of them were leaving the school grounds.

“Technically only in the day, since Yamato will probably give us more responsibilities.” Hibiki said.

“There’s also summer work that needs to be done.” Io said as she chimed in.

Suddenly Daichi wasn’t as excited anymore and slumped. “Way to burst my bubble guys.”

“Just being realistic.” Hibiki said cheerfully, while Io agreed with him.

“Well at least we don’t have to worry about college anymore.” Daichi said, resuming normal posture.

Io took a moment to think over the past week events before speaking. “My parents were somewhat dubious when they were told I would be guaranteed a job in the government, but Makoto was able to convince then, and I guess that’s what matters.”

“Yeah, mine too, and it’ll be sad to not see them any more when the time comes.” Daichi said, expression somewhat downcast, but then it brightened a little. “But I could see them from afar as bat.”

“That sounds kind of stalkerish.” Hibiki said playfully, before looking around subtly and then lowering his voice somewhat. “And we probably shouldn’t be talking about this in the open.”

Io and Daichi took on apologetic looks and then gave sheepish smiles. “Right. Well…” Daichi said as he trailed off, trying to remember something, and then straightened up when he did. “Oh right, any luck with speaking to those detectives?”

“I tried to get in contact with them by going to the agency they worked at, but the secretary there said they were called away to another city for work.” Hibiki said as he wondered when he’d be able to tell them, well more specifically Ronaldo.

“Do you plan on telling them about us?” Io said.

Hibiki took a moment to think over it before speaking. “Probably not. I don’t want Ronaldo to misunderstand anything, so if we can avoid it then I won’t tell him or Joe.”

“I don’t know about that Ronaldo guy, but yeah, it’s probably better not to tell them. I wouldn’t want Joe to be up in my mouth.” Daichi said as he remembered that instance.

“Well, no use in thinking about it now. In any case, we should probably get going, Yamato will probably have something for us to do.” Hibiki said as Io and Daichi nodded in response.

…

“You three will be stationed in Nagoya for the time being.” Yamato said as he handed Hibiki a folder containing documents on Nagoya and the surrounding areas.

“Why all three of us, and why there?” Hibiki asked as he opened the folder and read the papers.

“Your…friends need to be taught how to deal with normal ghouls, but with the increase in temperature, ghoul sightings will be less. So they will go to Nagoya, where man power is low and so they will have more chances to deal with them. You will go along as well so you may oversee them.”

“Why would there be less ghouls during the summer?” Daichi said as he scratched his head.

Yamato gave a look at Daichi causing the other to inwardly flinch. “If you perhaps remembered some of the ghoul teachings, you would know that normal ghouls are weak to fire. Thus they would be affected by high temperatures.”

“Ah…” Daichi said as he gave a nervous laugh. “Right.”

“Well as long as there aren’t any of those abnormal ghouls.” Hibiki said as he closed the folder.

“Which brings that problem to light. The time since the last appearance of an abnormal ghoul has become too great. Past abnormals haven’t reappeared, and Kanno’s test results are even more concerning.” Yamato said as he frowned slightly.

“What do you mean?” Io asked.

“You are all aware how normal ghouls come to be, correct?” He received a nod from each of them in response. “Well abnormal ghouls are entirely different from normal ghouls. Kanno’s tests show that the abnormals’ molecular structures are each unique to their own class, and also non-organic compared to normal ghouls.”

Hibiki frowned in understanding. “So they’re not being created in the usual sense.”

“Correct, which is concerning considering we can’t create a countermeasure if we don’t know how they are being created.” Yamato said as he crossed his arms, frown still in place.

Daichi timidly spoke up, confusion evident on his face. “Uh, what are we talking about?”

Hibiki spoke before Yamato could get a word in, although he still looked annoyed. “Basically those new ghouls aren’t made like the normal ghouls. So we don’t know who made them or how they’re made.”

“O-oh.”

“Which is why it is imperative that you remain on guard and keep a look out for any more abnormal ghouls, or anyone suspicious.”

“We’ll be sure to keep an eye out.” Hibiki said, and at that the meeting was finished and the three headed for the terminal.

…

Hibiki breathed a sigh of relief as the light faded and he landed safely at the terminal platform in Nagoya. This was his third time using the terminal, and he was slowly getting used to it.

The two thumps that followed signified that the two behind him clearly weren’t used to it, as this was their first use of the terminal.

“Whoa…that was a rush.” Daichi said as he picked himself off the ground.

“Yeah, and you would think they would have prepared us for that.” Io said as she brushed herself off.

“Well you should be able to get used to it after a few more jumps.” Hibiki said as they were approached by a JPs member.

“Welcome Kuze-sama.” He said and then gave a low bow.

“Oh, uh, you can just call me Hibiki.” He said, slightly unsure of how to respond to the large show of respect.

“But you are a pureblood, one capable of turning others and-.” He said before being cut off by Hibiki.

“Then as a pureblood, I want you to call me Hibiki, or Kuze is fine if you want to be more formal.”

The JPs member hesitated, then spoke. “Then Kuze…-san.”

Hibiki gave a slight smile. “That works too I guess.” He said, and now he knew how Yamato felt about interactions with the lower members of the organization. This was probably the reason Yamato preferred to mainly interact with and relay orders through Makoto, Fumi, and Otome (and it seems him as well now).

“I will show you to your rooms now.” He said as he moved to allow them to pass, and gave a slight bow.

Hibiki refrained from sighing. He wondered if every lower member would be acting this way.

…

Apparently yes, they all would be acting that way. Being a pureblood granted an immediate level of respect, and it didn’t help that his past deeds increased the amount of respect. Hibiki found that out when he heard whispers just drifting in the air.

_His looks are so deceiving, yet the beast within him is not to be trifled with._

_He’s had such an improper upbringing, yet he can fell ghouls like they’re flies._

_He can go so long without feeding, and continue to go longer. What tenacity._

_His bite is so much more potent than the Chief’s. I wonder if they will be just as strong as the Chief’s direct turns._

One of the whispers had also explained why Io and Daichi were also getting a degree of respect. Mainly because they were turned directly by him, and also because there was a known fact that people who Yamato found great potential in were turned directly with a bite, instead of indirectly with an injection. So this translated to “these people are also important,” which was true, just not in the same sense.

And this was why the three of them found themselves all alone in the training hall after breakfast the next day. Well, they weren’t really alone, since Hibiki could tell they were being watched by the other members to see what would happen. Hibiki didn’t care since they were being subtle about it, and weren’t being overbearing at the moment.

Either way, now seemed like a good time to teach Daichi and Io a little more since nothing would really happen in the morning.

“Well since you’ve gotten the hang of shifting and flying, summoning your familiar would be the next best thing to learn.” Hibiki said as he motioned for them to spread out.

“Shouldn’t we try to learn how to use skills?” Io asked.

“Well the reasoning behind this is that your familiar will draw enemy attention allowing you to use your skills, at least that’s what Yamato says, and it does sound logical.” Hibiki said as he gave a brief attempt to imitate Yamato, causing Io and Daichi to chuckle.

“I guess that sounds right. Well, teach us oh great master.” Daichi said playfully as he gave a mock bow.

Hibiki rolled his eyes, but smiled in response. “Well, first, you need to concentrate, and focus your senses.” Io and Daichi nodded, took deep breathes, and then closed their eyes. With that done, Hibiki continued on. “Okay, you know how you can feel people’s presences around you?” He got nods in response. “Well try to use your senses to find your familiars’ presence and try to ‘pull’ at them.”

Hibiki stayed quiet to allow them to concentrate, and refrained from saying anything when particles of light began to appear in front of them.

‘Wow, they got this somewhat easily. Hopefully they can get to use skills just as easily.’ Hibiki thought as the light particles began to condense and grow brighter.

Hibiki was more focused on Io’s group of light particles, since they were brighter, but didn’t seem to be taking on any shape, compared to Daichi’s, which was less bright, but seemed to be taking a definite shape, so maybe-

“Hee ho!”

The sudden noise broke Io’s concentration, causing her cluster of light particles to fade, and made Hibiki whip his head back at Daichi so quickly it almost gave him whiplash. There standing before them was a black familiar just coming up to their knees, and wearing a jester like hat.

“That was…fast.” Hibiki said, surprise on his face.

“Whoa! This is so cool!” Daichi said, visibly jumping with excitement.

“It’s kind of adorable.” Io said as she patted it on the head.

“Hee!” It said as it gave a smile and leaned into the touch.

“Well I guess you should name it then.” Hibiki said.

“Hm, Jack Frost?” Daichi said, only to get a snowball thrown at his face. “Hey!”

“Sorry, that name has been taken already. Coincidentally by a familiar that looks like this one. Plus I don’t think it wants that name.” Hibiki said as Daichi wiped the snow off his face.

“Then…Frosty!” Daichi said with a big grin. In response, his familiar frowned and then held up its palm and fire appeared. “W-whoa, no need to go that far!”

“Y-yeah. What about…”Io said as she paused to think. “Black Frost.”

There was a momentary pause, before Black Frost smiled and let the fire go out. “Ho!”

“Really?” Daichi said, incredulous. “I think you only like it cause she-“ Daichi said before being interrupted by a snowball to the face.

“Hee ho!” Black Frost said as it smiled mischievously.

“Well,” Hibiki said as he tried to hold his laughter in. “At least we have a success today.”

“Should I try again?” Io said.

“Probably not. When you’re trying to summon your familiar for the first time, you have to go against a sort of mental flow in order to create a connection, which puts some stress on your mind. In other words, it’ll give you a massive headache if you try too hard.”

“Well I guess there’s always next time.” Io said, looking slightly dejected.

Daichi quickly spoke up so the mood wouldn’t get any gloomier. “Hey Hibiki, why don’t you show use your familiar. We haven’t actually seen it yet.”

“Sure.” Hibiki said, not seeing any harm in it as he called forth Byakko, not expecting a loud roar and surge of energy, which disrupted the bats hanging from the ceiling and caused them to fly out of the training room. Once the surge died down, there was silence, as Io and Daichi were too shocked for words, and some occasional whimpers from Black Frost, who was cowering behind Daichi.

Hibiki merely blinked, and then rolled his eyes. “Show off.” He said with a smile as he gave Byakko a playful shove. In response, Byakko let its body weight fall on top of Hibiki. “Ack! Byakko! You’re heavy.” Hibiki said, and then gave a playful smirk. “Have you gained weight?” Byakko stared at Hibiki for a moment, and then began to lick the other on the face. “Wah! Ah, Byakko, you know your tongue is like sandpaper!” Hibiki said as he managed to free an arm and began to try to push Byakko away.

The moment was broken when Io giggled. “I’m-“ Io said before another giggle slipped out. “I’m sorry. It’s just so cute, Byakko’s like a kitten.”

“Yeah, a very big kitten.” Daichi said, the shock having worn off.

“Can I-“ Io said as she lifted a hesitant hand. “pet him?”

Byakko looked at Io for a moment, and then rolled off Hibiki and onto its back.

“Byakko likes belly rubs.” Hibiki said as he picked himself off the ground.

…

The next few hours were spent playing around and getting acquainted with the familiars. The mood was livelier since they were no longer being watched because Byakko’s display of power had frightened the watchers off.

The three were sitting on the floor and busy having a conversation while the familiars were having a staring contest, when three simultaneous growls interrupted everything. The familiars looked toward their masters, as the three blushed in embarrassment.

“Ah, I guess it’s time to eat. We have been here a while.” Hibiki said as he got off from the ground and stretched his limbs.

“Oh, should we…” Io trailed off as she took out a flask from her pocket after standing up.

“Right.” Daichi said, not looking forward to the thought of drinking blood. They had gone through the process of finding out their preference, but weren’t quite used to it yet.

Hibiki gave a hum of thought, before speaking. “You could take occasional sips while eating some solid food.”

“Really?” Io said, surprise on her face.

“Yeah, you don’t have to switch immediately to blood, and eating normal food isn’t bad for us as long as we take blood with it.”

“Great!” Daichi said as he stood up quickly. “What should we eat?”

“We should probably go eat out.” Hibiki said, and got confused looks in return, so he elaborated. “Would you want a repeat of dinner last night?” At this, Daichi and Io grimanced, having remembered the awkward night before.

“Right… Going out would be a good call.” Daichi said as he gave a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“Ok, so why don’t you dismiss your familiar while I write down a message to send to the person in charge. “Hibiki said as he took out a small pen and notebook from his pocket which were there should he need them. Then Hibiki paused when he realized Daichi wouldn’t quite know how to dismiss his familiar. “Oh, and to dismiss your familiar, all you need to do is to will him back to your mind.”

At that, Black Frost gave one last wave at Io, and one more snowball to the face for Daichi, before disappearing in a shimmering shower of light. Meanwhile, Hibiki wrote out a message stating that they would go out to patrol the area, which was half true since they would be going out looking around for a place to eat, and also to see the surrounding areas.

Once he was finished, he gave out a sharp whistle, making Io and Daichi wince slightly. Moments later, a messenger bat came flying in. Hibiki extended his arm out, and the bat landed on its front. It flapped its wings a few times to regain balance, before rolling over in order to grab the message with its foot.

Once the message was safely secured, it gave a squeak before rolling back over again and then took off.

Hibiki dropped his hand and turned to his friends. “Well, let’s go.”

…

So they didn’t have much trouble getting outside from the training room. In fact, many members were keeping a fair amount of distance from them, and Hibiki had a pretty good idea why. Although he wasn’t sure if he preferred this to the overbearing respect from before. He let it go for now, since they did have some time to smooth things over before they all went back to Tokyo.

At the moment now, Hibiki wasn’t worrying over that, instead, he and his friends were worrying over the fact that they were lost.

“Maybe we should have asked someone to take us around the area.” Io said as they walked aimlessly.

“And experience an awkward moment the entire time? I prefer getting lost.” Daichi said.

“I think we’re already los-“ Hibiki said before he caught a familiar, but unique scent.

“What’s wrong?” Io asked.

“Do you smell that?” Hibiki said as he began to follow the scent, while Io and Daichi merely followed since they couldn’t smell what Hibiki could smell.

The surrounding areas began to blur as Hibiki focus solely on finding the source of the scent. It was familiar, but also different. He couldn’t quite place it, but he encountered it recently.

Soon, they reached a quiet street, Io and Daichi still following along, since they weren’t sure what to do. They were still new to vampire life, and if Hibiki was focused intently on it, it probably was important.

As they walked further down the street, Hibiki could tell the source of the scent was getting closer. While on Io and Daichi’s end, they noticed that they were the only ones on the street, along with someone else.

It was a man with reddish hair, wearing a trench coat and a fedora. This mysterious man was standing in front of a small Japanese themed restaurant. The mystery man turned around as they got closer, and Hibiki was momentarily distracted when he could have sworn he saw the mystery man smile at catching sight of them, but when he blinked, there was only a neutral expression.

“If you’re here to eat, I hear they serve great chawanmushi.” The mystery man said, and then walked away.

“Weird, but at least we found a- Hibiki?” Daichi said as he noticed that Hibiki’s attention was once again drawn away.

Hibiki took a deep breathe, and confirmed that the scent was coming from inside. Hibiki steeled himself as he put a hand on the sliding door and slid it open.

“Welco-“ A boy, around their age, wearing a beanie said before he caught sight of them and tensed slightly.

Immediately Io and Daichi figured out what was so important as they realized that the boy was another vampire. Apparently the boy could also tell that they were vampires also.

The moment was tense, as the boy spoke. “Friend or foe?” He said warily.

“Friend.” Hibiki said without blinking, and even though the boy didn’t show it, he could tell the other was happy.

“Then have a seat.” The boy said as they each took a seat at the counter. “What would you like to order?”

Io and Daichi looked toward Hibiki, who scrambled to think of something. “Uh, um… Three orders of chawamushi?”

At this, the boy looked clearly happy as he gave a small smile. “Coming right up.”

Thus began a period of silence, with the occasional noise of pots, dishes, and other cooking noises. No one really knew what to say in this situation.

Then Daichi awkwardly began, since the silence was becoming too heavy. “Why don’t we introduce ourselves? I’m Daichi, that’s Io, and that’s Hibiki.” Daichi said as he pointed to the respective people. “So what’s your-“ Daichi said before a loud shout interrupted and startled them all.

“Jungo! Do we finally have custo-!” A girl with long red hair came from the room adjacent to the kitchen area. She stopped short when she caught sight of them.

At first sight, Hibiki knew that she was also a vampire, but also a human? The first word that came to mind was “Dhampir.” He said, causing everyone to look at him.

Immediately the girl became very wary, and then shouted. “Caith Sith!” Which was followed by the appearance of shimmering light, which formed into a humanoid cat, about as tall as her, and wearing boots and a feathered hat. It then brandished a sword and pointed it at them.

Before anyone could act, the now known Jungo intervened. “Airi, please calm down. I don’t want to explain to my boss why the furniture was cut up again.”

The girl, now known as Airi gave an angry huff of air.

…

They soon found themselves sitting across from each other at a table, each with a bowl of chawanmushi in front of them. Hibiki, Daichi, and Io were sitting on one side, while Jungo, Airi, and Caith Sith, who was eating its bowl of chawanmushi, were on the other.

“So let me get this straight. There’s an entire vampire nest under major governmental buildings in various cities across Japan.”

“That’s about right.” Hibiki said, not seeing anything wrong about the statement, although it may sound ridiculous to an outsider.

There was a slight pause, and Hibiki almost thought that she didn’t believe it, but her comment said otherwise.

“Let us join.” Airi said with a straight face.

“Wait, why?” Daichi said perplexed.

Airi frowned. “Does it matter?” She said almost angrily.

“Airi.” Jungo said, making her quiet down a little. “The main reason is that we will need blood soon. I used to be her main source, but now that I need it as well, things have become difficult.”

“When was the last time you had any blood?” Hibiki asked Airi.

Airi was silent for a moment before speaking. “A few weeks.”

Hibiki winced. He knew the feeling of being really hungry when going without blood after having a steady amount after a while. “Well if you need any now, I can spare a flask, and then we can work out you joining the coven.” Hibiki said as he produced one of the spare flasks he had. Since he was prone to forgetting to refill his flask, Yamato ordered him to carry around an extra flask.

Hibiki handed the flask to Airi, who uncapped it and then took a large sip. She made a face, not quite in disgust. “It’s drinkable, but I don’t really like the taste.” She said and then handed it to Jungo, who hesitated.

“You haven’t had many chances to drink blood, have you?” Io said, gaining a nod from Jungo.

“Don’t worry, we’re in the same boat as you.” Daichi said with a smile.

Jungo looked a little surprised. “When where you changed?”

“Oh, I think about a week ago, right Io?” Daichi said as he turned to Io, and got a yes in response.

Had Airi still had a mouth full, she would have spit it out in surprise, fortunately, she merely choked on her saliva. “What! Jungo took way longer than that.”

“Maybe it has to do with your heritage. For Hibiki, he’s a pureblood. So maybe your half status affected the process.” Io said as she gave a little more thought into it.

“Wait, you turned them? But you smell human.” Airi said directly to Hibiki.

“That might have to do with my upbringing.” Hibiki said as he sheepishly scratched his cheek. “But enough about me, we should probably head back with you. It is getting a little late.” He said as he looked at the clock on the wall. A few hours had passed since they had first entered the restaurant.

Everyone made to get up, but Jungo spoke up. “You haven’t had your chawanmushi yet.”

…

Once they had finished eating, and Caith Sith had been dismissed, Jungo closed up shop and they all headed for the nest. The sun was already hanging low in the sky, and by the time they reached the outer perimeter of the building grounds, the sun was dipping below the horizon.

Hibiki turned to Jungo. “Can you shift into a bat yet?” He asked, but wasn’t expecting Airi to speak.

“Wait, we can do that?” She said, surprised on her face.

“You mean you’ve never shifted.” Io said, also surprised.

“Well of course not. It’s not like I had anyone to teach me.” Airi said as the surprise melted away.

Io and Daichi cast Hibiki a quick glance, which was noticed, but Hibiki decided not to comment on that statement. “Well I guess we’ll have to go through the human way.” He said as he led them to the front steps of the building.

As they reached the steps, two familiar people exited from the building at the same time.

“Hey, it’s the ba-unny boy.” Joe said, having been elbowed subtly by Ronaldo 

“It’s alright, these two know.” Hibiki said as he noticed Ronaldo’s glances at Jungo and Airi.

“Is that so…” Ronaldo said, sounding slightly suspicious. “And why are you all here? This is government property.”

At this, Hibiki grew a little nervous, since he wasn’t exactly sure if he should reveal that there was an entire vampire nest just below them, so he decided to go with a half-truth. “There are people here who know things, and I thought it would be best to inform them that we would be in the area for the time being.” Hibiki said as he kept a straight face.

“And who are these two?” Ronaldo said, gaze not faltering.

Hibiki was saved from having to answer when Joe cut in. “Oh calm down Ronnie. There’s no need to interrogate them. They don’t even match the description of the suspects.”

“Suspects?” Hibiki asked, confusion visible on his face.

Ronaldo didn’t seem to want to elaborate, but Joe began to convince him. “We have been on this case in a while, and we haven’t had any luck with normal means. So maybe the answer is supernatural.”

With this logic, Ronaldo couldn’t deny the possibility that maybe there was something more to this case. So with a heavy sigh, Ronaldo explained the situation. “There have been several murders recently, and only one witness whose account is shaky at best. He told us he saw a distorted figure with two heads impale the victim with what appeared to be their hand.” Ronaldo shook his head at this. “As you can obviously infer, no one believed him.”

“Could it be a ghoul?” Io said softly to Hibiki, but she was still heard by the others.

“Ghoul?” Ronaldo and Airi said at the same time, causing them to look at each other for a moment.

Before anyone could say anything to elaborate on the topic, there was a screech, causing everyone to jump, and then a bat fell from the sky and then shifted as they reached the ground.

Hibiki recognized it as the person who greeted them when they had arrived in Nagoya. Hibiki didn’t think of anything else as he rushed to them, not caring that Ronaldo had reached for his gun. When Hibiki got close enough and tried to help the other up, he noticed they were covered in many gashes.

“K-Kuze-sam-san.” He said. Hibiki paid no mind to the slip in honorific as he called up a weak healing skill, which barely began to close up the wounds. The JPs member put a hand up to stop Hibiki. “N-no. Save your strength.” He rasped out.

“But you’re badly wounded.” Hibiki said as he attempted to try to heal again, but the member put more pressure on their hold of Hibiki’s hand. “I’m too far gone, but… you can help the others below. New…ghouls…attacking….” At this, the pressure on Hibiki’s hand lessened, and the member collapsed. Then their body turned to ash and blew away in the wind.

Hibiki took a deep breath and stepped away from the spot the member had been moments before. Yamato had warned him that their lifestyle was not without fatalities, but it was still hard to process what just happened.

“Come on, we need to hurry.” Hibiki said as he made to run through the building entrance, but Ronaldo stepped in the way.

“Kuze-“ Ronaldo started with a heavy tone, but Hibiki wouldn’t have any of it.

“Not now. The more time we waste, the more people will die.” Hibiki said, frustration creeping into his features.

“And your friends?” Ronaldo said with a questioning tone.

To answer the unsaid question, Hibiki turned to Jungo. “Can you summon your familiar?” He received a nod. So he turned to Daichi and Io next. “Daichi, get ready to summon your familiar. Io, do you think you can use the healing skill Otome taught you?”

“Right.” Daichi said, determined to help.

“Yes.” Io said as she brought up a hand and tested her control on the skill.

Hibiki turned back to Ronaldo, who wordlessly allowed them to run through, but still followed after them along with Joe.

…

When they all got to the Hall, it was utter chaos, and Hibiki could see what caused all this chaos.

Fourteen abnormal ghouls from what he could count, and the description seemed to match that of the witness. They did have two heads, but their hands, or rather, the entirety of the ghouls’ body seemed to be made of crystals, really sharp and pointy crystals.

Hibiki wasted no time in issuing out orders. “Daichi, have Black Frost draw their attention, and see if you can figure out how to use offensive skills.”

“U-uh, right!” Daichi said hesitantly, but still managed to summon his familiar and managed to convince it to attack.

“Io, go help out the injured.” Hibiki said as Io took no time to do so. Then he turned to Airi and Jungo. “Can any of you use skills?”

“I can just hit them.” Airi said as she brought her fist and palm together.

“I can use this knife.” Jungo said as he unsheathed it. Granted, it was a kitchen knife, but it would have to do.

Now all that was left was Ronaldo and Joe, who were just getting over their shock, or rather Ronaldo was getting over his shock, and Joe was just really amazed.

“You don’t have to worry about us, we have our firearms, and we’ll help out since the situation seems dire.” Ronaldo said as he took out his gun and took the safety off. Joe followed suit and did the same.

“Right.” Hibiki said as he turned back to the battle before him. He would worry about the consequences later.

So, with everything set, the remaining vampire of the group summoned their familiars.

“Byakko!/Caith Sith!/Nekoshogun!”

Three groups of light appeared simultaneously, with Byakko’s shining brighter than the others. This light drew all the remaining attention to them.

“Oh thank God!” Someone shouted.

“Kuze-sama!” Another shouted.

“I want those able to help the injured! I also need someone to send a message to the other branches!” Hibiki shouted down to them as the ghouls abandoned their initial targets and headed for Hibiki and the others.

“Yes sir!” They said almost simultaneously.

…

Things had been looking good at first, what with Daichi and Airi managing to use wind and fire respectively, allowing them to attack with their familiars, while Jungo’s attacks were able to send ghouls flying back, but…

Hibiki realized none of the ghouls were taking damage. Not even the guns were taking affect, merely ricocheting off them, causing Joe and Ronaldo to stop shooting momentarily for fear that the bullets would hit allies.

Hibiki took in a deep breath to shout for everyone to conserve energy, and to pull away to figure out what to do when all at once, the ghouls gave off a screech as one, causing everyone to clap their hands over their ears.

Hibiki kept his eyes open in case any ghouls decided to attack during this time, when he noticed something. All the ghouls were splitting in half, with arms and legs growing in place of where the other half originally was. When the noise died down, there were now twenty-eight ghouls, but they seemed different. Half the ghouls were entirely green, while the other half was entirely pink.

All at once, the ghouls attacked, causing everyone to instinctually attack in response. Skills, bullets and physical attacks made contact with both types of the ghoul, and here is when Hibiki noticed something.

“The green ones are weak against physical attacks and bullets, while the pink ones are weak against elemental skills!”

“That’s good to know.” A feminine voice said.

Hibiki turned around to see “Hinako! Keita!” He shouted with relief.

“And we’ve brought the cavalry.” Hinako said with a wink as she gestured to the new flood of JPs members rushing in to help he fallen.

“Whatever. I’m just here to beat up some ghouls.” Keita said as he rushed toward some of the green ghouls.

“Careful out there.” Hinako said as she rushed toward some pink ghouls.

“Righ-!” Hibiki said, but cut off mid-sentence when the hairs on his neck stood on end. He jumped away in response and a bolt of lightning struck where he had been standing.

He turned his head to see a pink ghoul getting ready to fire off another one when it was hit by some cutting wind.

“Hibiki!” Daichi shouted.

“Thanks!” Hibiki shouted back, while firing off his own cutting wind, finishing off the ghoul. All of a sudden, Hibiki could have sworn he heard a cracking noise, and felt a sort of pulse in him, but he didn’t have enough time to think on it as another pink ghoul was after him.

Hibiki threw out the first skill that would come naturally, not expecting a large lightning bolt to appear and vaporize the ghoul. Hibiki blinked at the pile of ash as Byakko bounded over and nudged him in the face with its nose.

This got Hibiki out of his shock, as he patted Byakko on the nose. “I guess that’s how you felt.”

With this stronger skill, several more ghouls followed suit, but another screech broke through the air again. Everyone watched as the remaining ghouls began glowing, and several ghouls teleported next to each other. When the glowing and screeching ended, there were now eight ghouls left, but despite the few number, Hibiki knew nothing could be done in this state.

“Everyone! They won’t take damage in this form, so wait for them to split apart again!” Everyone pulled back and dodged as best as they could while they waited, which was an agonizing few minutes as the ghouls were relentless.

When the ghouls did split apart again, Hibiki noticed that there were more ghouls than before, and that the damage dealt was undone. This meant that the ghoul pairs had to be destroyed, and before they fused together again.

It seemed everyone else also realized this as they increased their effort to destroy the ghouls, but it was difficult since the ghouls were always moving, so it was hard to tell which ghoul was paired with another, and before they knew it, the ghouls had fused back together again.

They had only managed to kill four more ghouls, but everyone was already becoming exhausted. Hinako and Keita were doing slightly better though, since they had come in during the middle, but even they were out of breath.

Daichi had shifted to healing since his familiar had been defeated, and he had no real control over his offensive skills. Even then healing was taxing as well since Io and Daichi only knew the weaker healing skill, but with the battle lasting this long and their overuse of the skill left them drained of energy.

Airi and Jungo were in similar states, but Jungo was worse off. He hadn’t been able to use any elemental skills, and had relied solely on physical attacks, which were quickly draining his stamina.

Hibiki was in no better state than any of them since the stronger lightning skill drained a lot of energy, and his stamina was getting really low as he expended the effort to give Byakko a power boost every so often.

The only people doing fairly well was Joe and Ronaldo, only because they were using guns and staying far back, but with their human status and lack of bullets, they couldn’t do much else.

Either way, once the ghouls were split again, the offensive began again, but with everyone running low on energy and stamina, not everyone could deal much damage. Their speed and reaction time was also severely affected, as Hibiki soon found out.

Hibiki held back a pained gasp as razor cutting winds tore a deep gash in his side, but was able to quickly send a small arc of lightning at the ghoul before pulling away.

Before Hibiki could think of whether to heal the wound or conserve his energy, his thoughts were interrupted.

_“Kuze! We’ve arrived, where are the ghouls located?”_ Makoto asked urgently in his mind.

Hibiki was too relieved to care that they were late as he responded. _“You don’t have to go far, they’re in the Hall.”_

_“What?!”_ Makoto responded back, disbelief in her tone.

Hibiki didn't have time to respond when two of the pink ghouls suddenly lunged at him. There was nowhere to go with the wall just two feet behind him and the ghouls closing off any opening for escape. Hibiki tried to send another arc of lightning, but all he got was sparks. With no means of escape, and a lack of energy, he braced himself and closed his eyes, but just before he closed them, he thought he saw a flash of silver.

Suddenly Hibiki felt an arm wrap around him with was immediately followed by the roar of intense flames.

Hibiki opened his eyes to see the ghouls burning to ashes, and then looked behind him to see Yamato, who had a scowl on his face. Hibiki could probably guess why Yamato was in such bad mood, but before he could say anything, he was pulled closer to Yamato until his back was pressed up against Yamato's chest.

'Wow, we're really close- No, don't think about that.' Hibiki thought as he grew a little more nervous at his close proximity to Yamato, who didn't notice the other's growing nervousness as he summoned Cerberus to take care of the remaining ghouls.

"Y-you're late." Hibiki said, and then cursed himself as his voice shook from nervousness.

Yamato merely took the slip up as a sign of exhaustion or pain, or maybe both, and instead focused on Hibiki. "You can thank my imbecilic subordinates for that. We received a flood of injured, but no one thought to come tell me what was happening. I went down to the medical wing to investigate, only to be told that you were all engaging abnormal ghouls." Yamato said, frowning even more.

"Well..." At least no one got hurt? No one died? Yeah, he couldn't say those. "At least we got them all-ow!" Hibiki said as he tried to slowly shift out of Yamato's hold, only to agrravate his wound.

"I suppose, but the price we paid was severe." Yamato said as he moved his hand from Hibiki's waist, up to the wound on Hibiki's side. Then there was a soft glow as the wound began to heal, and Hibiki could breath slightly easier, although he was still pressed up against Yamato.

Once it was healed, they remained in that position for a few moments, before Hibiki spoke up. "Uh, you can let go now."

Yamato paused, and them slowly let his arm fall to his side. if Hibiki didn't know any better, he could have sworn that Yamato was reluctant to let him go, but before he could say anything, a shout interrupted.

"Hibiki! Are you-ah." Ronaldo shouted, but stopped mid sentence when he saw the position that Yamato and Hibiki were still in.

Hibiki quickly stepped away and turned toward Yamato, to see that other giving a hard glare at Ronaldo, before turning to Hibiki.

Hibiki put up his hands in a placating gesture. "It was an emergency!" Yamato's features softened only slightly, but before Hibiki could say anything, another shout interrupted.

"Hibiki! Do you have any more blood I can drink." Airi said as she dropped down from a hole above them.

At this, Yamato raised an eyebrow. "I expect a full report when all of this is cleaned up." He said before shifting and flying toward a group of JPs members.

Well, it seemed Yamato calmed down somewhat, but that still meant that he needed to explain everything to Yamato. Hibiki sighed, and then reached into what remained of his hoodie (he would really need to get a new one soon), and got out both of his flasks.

This was going to be a long night, and he would need at the strength he could muster.

**Fate Level has become 5**

_You are now bonded._

_~~Enjoy a lifetime together.~~ _

_You will now share many things with each other._


	7. Fate Level 5 (Relationship: Boss and Subordinate)

Hibiki gave a yawn as he arranged the remains of his hoodie into a nest like bundle. He had spent several hours helping move the wounded, helping to direct the lower vampires, dealing with Airi and Jungo (mainly Airi), and occasionally talking with Io and Daichi.

Thankfully now he could get some rest, although not in a bed since he gave up his room so that other vampires could use it. He was fine with it, since he could sleep in his bat form, which he had done multiple times in Yamato's office.

Hibiki gave a pause, speaking of Yamato, Hibiki noticed something odd.

Yamato wasn't acting like himself. He wasn't as curt or strict with all the lower vampires, but it wasn't like that was a bad thing. It made the other vampires more productive, and Yamato was probably acting that way since so much happened in the past hours.

With a nod to himself, he concluded that that was the reason, so Hibiki continued to arrange his hoodie. Once he was satisfied with the arrangement, he shifted into his bat form and made himself comfortable. He quickly grew sleepy due to exhaustion, and almost drifted off to sleep when-

"What are you doing?" A very familiar voice asked suddenly.

Hibiki squeaked in surprise as he flapped his wings, causing him to get tangled in the cloth. A soft chuckle stopped him, and he looked up.

There was Yamato crouching down to his level, with a small smile on his face.

'Did Yamato just laugh?' Hibiki thought, but nevertheless answered. _"I was just about to go to sleep actually."_

Yamato raised an eyebrow at this. "You're sleeping here? Why?"

_"Well I kind of gave my room up for someone else."_ At this, Hibiki got a look from Yamato, so Hibiki hastily continued. _"Because they kind of need it more than I do."_

Yamato closed his eyes and gave a soft sigh. Hibiki took this opportunity to get a good look at the other's face. It held an expression of calmness, with some tinges of tiredness just hanging around the edges. It was also quite nice to look at.

'Wait, why am I admiring his looks?' Hibiki asked himself as his gaze darted away to somewhere else just as Yamato's eyes opened.

"I can't have you sleeping here. So you'll have to sleep in my quarters." Yamato said, not allowing Hibiki to protest as he untangled the other's small form from the cloth.

Once Hibiki was free, Yamato placed Hibiki on his shoulder and almost turned to leave, when as an afterthought, he picked up the tattered hoodie to bring with him.

\-- 

Soon, they arrived at Yamato's quarters (located next to his office), Hibiki was surprised to find it was quite large, with its own personal bathroom.

'Well, he is the chief.' Hibiki thought as he shifted back to his human form, and then he noticed something. "There's only one bed." A king sized one, but still.

"We will be sharing it." Yamato said, not fazed by what the fact entailed while he placed Hibiki's hoodie down. 

Hibiki mentally shrugged. He did share a bed with Daichi a couple times when they were younger, this probably wouldn't be any different, probably.

"Okay." Hibiki said, not too concerned since there was no point in looking into it further. Then he plopped himself down on the bed, not surprised to find out that it was much more comfortable than the beds in the residence wing.

Yamato took off his coat and draped it over a chair, then he also let himself drop on to the bed, albeit much more gracefully, if that was even possible.

"You look tired." Hibiki said as he rolled over on his side.

"I'm responsible for looking over damage and casualty reports, and general command of the overall branch. There is also the fact that much of the blood stocks here were destroyed, and we'll have to wait a full day to restock everything." Yamato said somewhat tiredly, while still looking up at the ceiling.

Hibiki mulled over this information, and based on what he had seen recently, that totaled to a lot. Then he blinked when he realized something.

"Wait, does that mean you haven't fed?" He said, eyes widening slightly.

At this, Yamato turned his head toward Hibiki, although his expression hadn't change. "Unlike most of my subordinates, I do not immediately need to feed in order to keep functioning. Thus I rationed the remaining stock we had left to those who need it so that productivity will at least be maintained.

"Oh." Hibiki said, the conversation fading into short silence as Hibiki mulled over a thought. "Do you want some of my blood?" Hibiki said suddenly after consideration.

Had Yamato not already been looking at the other, he might have given himself whiplash. Instead, faint surprise bloomed in his expression.

"I mean, can vampires feed on other vampires?" Hibiki asked, not certain anymore.

"They... can." Yamato said, a slight pause in between the words.

"Oh, okay. Um... Well, I'm saying this because I figure with all the responsibilities you have, you probably really need it. Plus I can go without a few feedings." Hibiki said with a small smile.

The surprised faded, to be replaced by faint exasperation. "Yes, because missing feedings is entirely healthy." Yamato said, sarcasm lacing his tone.

Hibiki smiled in response. "I mean it though." He said, sincerity on his face.

Yamato was silent and unmoving. His eyes showing that he was contemplating the offer, before coming to a decision and sitting upright.

"If you are sure." Yamato said, gaze subdued.

Hibiki sat up, and crawled a little closer to Yamato. "Yeah, I'm sure."

"Very well then. Roll the cloth down on your sweater." Yamato said as he moved closer while Hibiki did as he was told.

Then they got really close to each other, barely an inch of space between their chests. Immediately, Hibiki grew nervous as he began to shift from side to side.

He wasn't quite used to such close contact, at least close frontal contact. While he was okay with Daichi slinging an arm over his shoulder, or jumping on his back when they were rough housing, this, was different.

Unfortunately, Hibiki couldn't control himself as Yamato got closer to his neck, and actually got worse.

"Quit fidgeting unless you want me to hit an artery." Yamato said, bringing Hibiki out of his nervousness long enough for Yamato to be able to pierce the skin and begin drinking.

The pain was minimal at best, and soon faded. The next few moments were spent in silence, with the only noises being Hibiki's soft breathing and the occasional shuffle of clothes. Not once did Yamato's feeding produce any noise.

Hibiki knew Yamato was done when the other retracted their fangs. What he didn't expect was a tongue to go over the fang marks, causing a shiver to run up his spine.

"Y-you good?" Hibiki said, his pitch jumping just once.

Yamato brought his head up to meet Hibiki's gaze. "Yes." He replied.

Silence washed over, and before any of them could speak up, the door suddenly opened.

"Sir, I heard you haven't fe- oh!" Makoto said before noticing that Yamato was not alone, and that they were in an interesting position.

Hibiki took the moment to consider the situation. They were both nearly pressed up against each other, Yamato's hand had somehow made it around his waist, and their faces were leveled with each other, almost as if they had kiss-

At this, Hibiki blushed, and so did Makoto. Although neither of them spoke, as Yamato choose the moment to speak.

"You don't need to worry about that anymore. Hibiki offered up some of his blood." Yamato said.

Now Makoto looked torn between embarrassment that she had come to the wrong conclusion, and concern for Hibiki.

"O-oh. Ah, is that wise?" Makoto asked, finally having gone with concern.

"You don't have to worry about me. A little blood loss won't affect me much, and besides, Yamato has more responsibilities than me." Hibiki said with a small smile, trying to relieve Makoto's concerns.

"If you are certain..." Makoto said, her sentence trailing off. "Well, then, I will take my leave. Excuse me." Makoto said as she gave a bow, and then closed the door.

Hibiki gave a small chuckle that was slightly strained, and then wiggled himself out of Yamato's hold. "Well, I'm going to sleep now."

And so Hibiki's thoughts were put aside as the day's events caught up to him and he immediately fell asleep.

....

The next morning, Hibiki woke up, or rather, his awareness of his surrounding increased while he was mainly still asleep. From what he could tell by his sleep clouded mind, he will still in the same place as when he had fallen asleep. He was not moved, which usually occurred when someone (namely Daichi) played a prank, but none of that was the case. 

Instead, he was in a comfortable bed, and his front pressed up against something warm. There was nothing wrong with that, but then he momentarily tensed when he felt a hand go through his hair. Immediately, he relaxed, as there was no danger. Instead, he felt-

_Safe_

So with no danger around, and a craving for more of the comfort, Hibiki pressed further into the warmth and leaned into the touch. Soon, his awareness decreased as he was ready to go back to full- 

_WAKE UP!_ His awareness seemingly shouted, causing Hibiki's eyes to shoot open just as the doors slammed open. 

"Hey Hibiki!" Airi shouted, an irritated and tired expression on her face, which was soon replaced by surprise. 

So startled by the double wake up call, that Hibiki shifted to his bat form mid jerk, and then flapped to a safe position, which was the top of Yamato's head. 

Silence instantly took over as all three of them took the moment to figure out what just happened.

Hibiki idly realized that he had shifted much faster than he had previously done, although he wasn't sure just how fast. Meanwhile, Airi had come to a certain conclusion as she floundered and sounded very much flustered.

"Y-you- I- j-just.... I'll come back when you're both done!" Airi shouted after finally getting herself together, and then walked away quickly after slamming the door. 

The two were silent, processing what just happened when Yamato spoke up. "Perhaps we should get ready for the day. There is much to do."

_"Right. I guess I'll take the shower first."_ Hibiki said as he flew off of Yamato's head after the other gave a slight nod of the head in confirmation.

.... 

The shower had been very relaxing, and not even the sight of his slightly faded scars had damped the feeling, since he had already gotten used to them. The only problem was that he had no clothes to wear, since most of his belongings were either in Tokyo, or ruined by the attack. He couldn't even wear the clothes he wore the night before as they had mysteriously disappeared from where he had put them after stripping.

So without further ado, he grabbed a towel off the rack, wrapped it around his waist, and walked out of the bathroom. There was no one in the room at the moment, but then the door opened to reveal Yamato, who was carrying some clothing, and acting as usual until he saw Hibiki in just a towel. 

Immediately, his eyes widened as he quickly shut the door and averted his gaze. 

"Hibiki." Yamato said, gaze trying to find Hibiki's face, but failing. 

"Oh, uh. Hey." Hibiki said sheepishly. "I was just trying to find some clothes." At this, Yamato held out the hand that held the clothing. Hibiki walked over and took the clothing. "I guess I'll put these on," Hibiki said as he noticed Yamato was trying not to look at him. "...in the bathroom." Hibiki said after a pause. 

Yamato nodded and Hibiki took that as his cue to go back to the bathroom. Once there, Hibiki took the moment to examine the clothing. It was a simple, greyish, black button-up dress shirt along with a pair of black dress pants. 

"These must be Yamato's." Hibiki said, and then as an afterthought decided to sniff the clothing. 'Hm, they smell nic- wait, why am I thinking this.' Hibiki thought as he gave a strained chuckle. To stop any further, unusual, thoughts, he put them on and then looked in the mirror. 

Yamato had a slightly larger build than Hibiki, as a result, the clothing hung a little on his frame. 'Well it's better than nothing.' Hibiki thought as he readjusted the shirt and pants to fit better. Once he was satisfied, he walked out the bathroom to see Yamato, who had regained his usual composure.

"Not the clothing I usually wear, but it'll do." Hibiki said as he gave a small smile. 

"It was the only clothing I could find on short notice, but if you find it uncomfortable, you may go out to buy new clothing when there is time." Yamato said, seemingly happy that he could finally look at the other. 

"Okay, well... do you need to shower?" Hibiki said. 

"No. I groomed myself an hour before you woke up." 

"Oh." Hibiki said, slightly pouting since he didn't get to see Yamato with a bed head. 'Oh well, there's always next time.' _What_? Hibiki thought before Yamato spoke up. 

"If everything is done, perhaps we should survey the progress that's been made so far."

"Yeah." Hibiki replied, deciding to ignore his thoughts for now. 

..... 

As they walked to the Hall, Hibiki noticed that a lot of progress was made. Pretty much all of the rubble that had littered the areas had been removed, and some of the building structures were repaired. Occasionally they would walk past a familiar holding a chunk of rubble, or a lesser vampire who would bow toward them, before going off to wherever they were headed.

Once they got to the Hall, Hibiki saw there was much improvement, and a flurry of activity. Some of the levels' walkways were repaired, while others were in the process of being repaired. Flying familiars were going from floor to floor carrying tools and materials to vampires and other familiars who were helping to rebuild. 

There were also vampires and familiars who were moving what was left of the rubble, which wasn't much left. Overall, everything looked better than the aftermath the day before. 

"They did a lot." Hibiki said as he cast his gaze around the Hall.

"Indeed. This much progress wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for you." Yamato said, approval on his face, and praise lacing his tone. 

Hibiki turned back to Yamato, confusion on his face. "What do you mean? 

"We would have suffered severe losses had you not intervened, but thanks to your leadership and abilities, losses were kept to a minimum. The only severe impact we received was to the infrastructure, which is currently being restored as you can see now." Yamato said, expression not changing, but Hibiki could just feel _something_ radiating from the other. He just didn't know what, but he didn't have time to figure it out when a voice called out.

"Morning Hibiki!" 

Said person turned around to see Io, Daichi, both carrying boxes, and... Black Frost, who was also carrying a box. At the latter, the morning greeting he was going to reply with died off to be replaced by a question. 

"Did Black Frost...grow?" Hibiki asked as he crouched down to get a closer look at the familiar. While the box of supplies it was carrying went up to its face, he could still see the height in comparison to Daichi. Before the familiar had barely reached Daichi's knee, but now it was past mid-thigh, almost nearing Daichi's hip. 

Daichi's response was, "Huh, I hadn't noticed." Daichi said as he shifted the boxes in his arms before speaking. “I’ve had him out since I woke up and started helping out. Maybe he did get taller maybe?” 

“Oh, well, he was going to grow anyway. “ Hibiki said as he stood up from his crouch. Then he snuck a glance at Yamato, who looked mildly impressed. At what, he wasn’t sure, but he had no time to dwell on it when Yamato spoke up.

“At this rate, we’ll be back to full working capacity, although there is still the matter of replenishing our blood stocks.”

“Oh, one of the vampires told me that the shipment of blood will arrive no later than evening.” Io said as she shifted the boxes to look past them.

Yamato gave a nod of approval. “That is good to know. At this rate, I’ll allow the majority of the coven to rest once the repairs are finished.”

“That’s awfully nice of you. Normally you twitch at the thought of idleness.” Hibiki said with a small smile. 

Yamato gave a short and low hum. “With all that’s happened in these past few hours, not giving my underlings rest would be a folly.”

“Yeah, some of the vampires are just nodding off on their feet. Like Jungo over there.” Daichi said as he turned to direct their attention to said person, who was swaying slightly while being poked (jabbed) repeatedly by Airi. 

“Oh right, she needed me for something…” Hibiki trailed off when he remembered what happened this morning.

“Why don’t you deal with them now. You can explain how you found them in your report.”

“Right.” Hibiki said as he turned to walk toward the two, while the rest of them split off to their tasks.

…. 

It turned out that Jungo had stayed up the entire night, so with a little help (shoving) from Airi, they got Jungo to Hibiki’s room, which had recently been vacated. Hibiki didn’t know who used it the night prior, but the room was cleaned, and the bed was made. So Hibiki took it that no one was going to use it any time soon, plus he didn’t really mind the messed up bed if he were to sleep in it. 

Then he was all but shoved out of the room, on the reasons that Airi would say behind to look after Jungo. Hibiki reluctantly agreed, and as he was closing the door, he saw Airi nodding off in the couch she was sitting on, and realized she must have also stayed up the entire night as well. 

The only good thing about this all would be that they wouldn’t be alone to face their problems, which was the most important thing in his mind, since he had pretty much experienced that very thing. 

In any case, Hibiki decided to head back to the Hall to see if would be able to help with anything, to which the answer would be yes. 

Just as he stepped foot into the Hall, he was nervously approached by a lesser vampire in yellow. They only thing Hibiki could tell about this vampire was that she was slightly taller than him, and had dark color hair. It was slightly unnerving to see someone taller than you and being nervous. 

“K-Kuze-sama.” She stuttered only slightly and then gave a bow. 

Hibiki inwardly twitched at the suffix, but gave props at that fact that she only stumbled her wording a little, and that she could meet his gaze. Or at least it looked like she could meet his gaze, but the cloth mask she was wearing was making it difficult to tell. 

“Yes.” Hibiki said as he inclined his head up slightly.

“We are in need of your assistance.” She said, posture rigid. 

“Sure, what do you need?” Hibiki said, trying to sound friendly and not intimidating. Hibiki idly wondered if the clothing he was wearing now made him seem imposing. The lower vampires didn’t act this nervous when he was in his hoodie.

“Some coven members are in need of sustenance. In an emergency, we would be allowed a certain amount of blood from major hospitals in the area. Unfortunately, lesser vampires are not allowed to hold large stocks of blood at a time.” She said, looking slightly more relaxed, but still stiff all the same.

“And because Yamato already has his hands full, you go to the next best pureblood, which would be me.” Hibiki said, smiling to show that there was no offense taken.

“Y-yes.” She said, nervous, or was it just uncertainty?

“Sure, I don’t mind. I want to be able to help as much as possible.” Hibiki said, genuine sincerity showing up in his expressing.

This large show of sincerity cause the vampire to blurt out. “Oh no, you’ve already done so much! Your presence is very much inspiring, and you’ve already lead many to victory. There’s also the fact that you Bonded with Hotsuin-sama, who has been-oh!” She stopped, suddenly realizing that she was breaking protocol.

Hibiki smiled. “It’s fine, it’s fine. Just tell me where to go and what to do.” He said, letting everything she said slide since it had finally gotten her to loosen up.

She cleared her throat. “Y-yes. Well, you just need to go to the Nagoya General Hospital. Then head to their sub-basement where one of the ah, informed, doctors will be waiting with the stocks. Then you need only head back here.” She said, slowly reverting back to her formal posture, except it wasn’t quite stiff anymore.

“Sure, easy enough.” Hibiki said.

….

Which is what he originally thought, until he got to the hospital and was reminded of why he hated going to them. Sure small clinics or nurses’ offices were fine, but hospitals were just in another category.

There were so many scents just lingering around, from medicine, blood, sickness, and…

…death. Hibiki paused in his walking toward the stairs when he glanced through a door, where he saw a family gathered around a man who looked no older than thirty. The man was connected to various equipment, with a respirator on his face, which was a very ashen white. The heart monitor beeped at a very slow pace.

Hibiki decided to continue walking. He didn’t stop when the beep became long and pronounced, and by the time the cries of grief reached his ears, he was already down a flight of stairs.

He tried not to think about it. Death has a particular scent to it, and whenever he caught whiff of it, there was never any way to avoid it. So he always tried to avoid any encounters with it if possible, but he knew he couldn’t avoid it forever. That fact was even more so reinforced thanks to yesterday’s events.

So with a deep breathe (thankfully most of the hospital scents didn’t reach this far down the stairwell), he pushed aside the heavy feelings dwelling inside him, and quietly continued down the stairwell.

Although as he continued on, he couldn’t help but feel that he was being…watched. So, without giving any pause, he quickly whipped around and began to search, only to find nothing.

‘Maybe my nerves are getting to me.’ Hibiki thought to himself, as he turned back around to continue walking, only to nearly Shift out of his clothes in surprise when before, there was no one there, but now a white haired figure in a red and black sweater.

“Gah!-“ Hibiki said in surprise, before quickly trying to recompose himself.

The figure brought up a hand to their mouth, almost as if they were covering a laugh, but Hibiki didn’t have time to think about it as the figure put their hand down and began to speak.

“It seems you are matching up well with your Bonded.” He said.

Hibiki didn’t quite know what to say to that, or anything in general. He was still trying to calm his racing heart, and idly wondered what the other meant by being “bonded”.

“Although you radiate feelings freely, even for people you don’t even know, Shining One.”

Hibiki didn’t comment on the name, as he was overcome with a feeling of familiarity. “Do I…know you?” Hibiki said, hesitant, but the feeling was now shouting that, yes, he should know this person, no, this vampire, this-

A slight twitch downward of the other’s smile got Hibiki’s attention, but it was gone before he could really see it.

“You shouldn’t.” The other said, a sad smile on his face as he faded from view.

Hibiki walked to the spot the figure was, and waved a hand in the air, but felt nothing. Vaguely, Hibiki was confused as this encounter, but he was more unnerved because there was a strong lingering scent of _Death._

…..

It took several moments for Hibiki to get himself back together. He reasoned that maybe the other just spent a large amount of time around dying and dead people, and that their natural scent was just covered by it.

There was no way that someone could naturally smell like that, and so Hibiki dismissed those thoughts and went on his way. Although doubt was still tugging at the edges of his mind.

Either way, Hibiki eventually made it down to the sub-basement where a doctor was waiting in a shadowed niche, practically unseen had Hibiki not been a vampire and sensed the other there.

The doctor merely only sent a cursory glance at him, before handing a normal looking leather briefcase to him. Then the doctor nodded and headed off toward an elevator.

Hibiki lifted the briefcase slightly, and found it to have some weight. He gave a peek inside, and sure enough, there were several blood packs inside, along with an ice pack and insulation lining the sides. Not wanting to chance being stopped, and the briefcase searched, he headed back to headquarters.

He encountered no trouble on the way there. Hibiki idly wondered, if the clothing he was wearing made him look like a business man, with the briefcase finishing the look. Hibiki chuckled, now all he needed was a tie to complete the look.

Eventually, he made it back, and since he couldn’t use the bat ways, what with holding a several pound briefcase, he went through the building. No one spared a glance at him, which usually happened when he wore his hoodie, but he wasn’t wearing that now, and speaking of which, he really did need to get a new one. Fortunately, most of the repairs were practically done when he left, so maybe he could take the time to go out and find one.

….

When the elevator opened, Hibiki was surprised to find that everything was fixed, and all the vampires and familiars that were moving around were gone. The remaining vampires that seemed to be there looked to be making inspections, and then the vampire that had requested he pick up the blood approached him with less nervousness than before.

“Kuze-sama” She said with a slight bow. “I take it you did not face any complications?”

“No, everything went fine. Here’s the blood.” Hibiki said as he held the briefcase for the vampire, who took it, and for a moment, it seemed she underestimated the weight as her arm dipped slightly when she took hold of the handle.

“Oh! This is a bit more than I thought it’d be. No matter. We’ll save some for later, and ration the rest to those who need it.”

“That’s great. They definitely deserve it after everything has happened.” Hibiki said with a smile.

The vampire was slightly taken aback. “Oh no, this is our responsibility, and we’ve already been rewarded with rest by Yamato.”

“Well, you better take advantage of-“ Hibiki started to say, but was interrupted by constant sharp whistles. Hibiki’s heart felt heavy as he knew what this meant. “You may need to use those as battle rations for the combatants.” He said as he gestured toward the briefcase.

The vampire seemed stunned, but then overcame it as she spoke up. “But what about you?” She said with uncertainty.

“Don’t worry about me, I can handle things fine. There are others who need it more than me.” Hibiki said as he gave her a reassuring smile.

She gave a shaky nod in response, and then began to head for the blood safe to divide up, and distribute the blood, while Hibiki headed off to the control room to figure out what was happening.

There, virtually all the vampires, who were not resting, were gathered. The lesser vampires were furiously typing at the consoles, and trying to gather information from all the video feeds showing places from all over Japan.

“What’s going on!?” Daichi said as he arrived with Io, Airi, and Jungo.

“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.” Hibiki said as he went toward the stairs leading up to the bridge. It overlooked everything in the room, and was where Yamato currently was.

“What’s happening?” Hibiki said as he approached Yamato.

There was a grim expression on his face, but nevertheless he replied. “We are getting multiple reports of ghoul sightings in multiple locations. Some of these sightings were made by civilians.” Yamato said with a frown.

“Wait, these ghouls are out in the day!?” Hibiki said as he turned toward the monitors, to see that yes, there were strange looking ghouls walking around in the daylight. “Has their existence been revealed to the public?” Hibiki said as his eyes went from monitor to monitor. 

“Fortunately no, our human agents in the SDF are maintaining a perimeter around the areas, and the civilian’s memories have been altered after they told us what they saw.

“We’ll need to exterminate them before they breach those perimeters.” Hibiki said as he turned back to Yamato.

“Yes, but unfortunately most of our combatants are out of commission, and the other vampires are not fit to fight. We only have a select few who are able to engage these ghouls.” 

“What’ll be the course of action?” Hibiki asked, not liking the odds.

“We’ll be dividing up those capable into teams, and then send them out to major cities. From there, they will work their way from highly populated areas until all the ghouls have been eradicated.” Yamato said.

“We got a lot of work cut out for us.” Hibiki said as he looked back toward the monitors.

….

And a lot of work it was in just a few hours. The new ghouls, while staggering in numbers, were incredibly weak. So, with Hibiki at the forefront, he quickly began to move faster than the human eye could track, all the while taking down any ghoul in his path, while the lesser vampires were picking off any stragglers.

Hibiki was in charge of Tokyo, while the others were sent to lead teams, much like his own, to the other cities to systematically take down all the ghouls. So far, it was working fairly well, and at the moment, Hibiki was standing motionless, but throwing out his senses to see if there were any more ghouls.

There! –at once, Hibiki headed straight for where the ghoul was, but a gunshot almost made him stumble. He hadn’t accounted for any humans, and now he had to deal with them as well.

Except, when he got there, he didn’t need to worry any more. As all he saw was the ghoul and Joe, who looked to have been the one to fire the shot. At the moment, Hibiki couldn’t focus on Joe as the ghoul was about ready to explode.

This ghoul, dubbed Megrez, looked like Dubhe, except for several differences. Where Dubhe matched the height of most adults, these ghouls were about half the size, with only one exploding glob that enveloped their entire torso. Fortunately, these globs could not be thrown, unfortunately, the ghouls could survive their own explosions, and then grow a new one.

Without a second thought, Hibiki jumped in front of Joe, who was bringing his arms up in reaction, and then summoned a non-elemental attack at the ghoul. The attack killed it, but the explosion still went off. Hibiki was able to weather the blast, but it still did some damage.

Once the ringing in his ears stopped, Hibiki was able to hear Joe speak.

“Hey! It’s bunny-boy- well, it seems like you got a change of clothes, but still.” Joe said with a smile as he clicked the safety on, and holstered his gun.

“Joe, what are you doing here? I thought you were in Nagoya.” Hibiki said as he turned around to face Joe.

“Well, Ronnie sent me back here to hand in his written report, but then I got a call to investigate some suspicious activity, and then here I am, facing off against one of those ghosts- Goops? –Ghouls? Oh yeah, that’s right, ghouls.” Joe said, expression changing from a smile, to contemplation, and then back to a smile again.

“Right. Um, you’re gonna have to tell your superiors that you just found some unruly kids playing with some dry ice.” Hibiki said as he tried to come up with a convincible story. Luckily they were in a fairly deserted warehouse area. “Can’t have people finding out about ghouls and panicking.” Hibiki finished once he was sure the story would hold.

“Right you are. Besides, I don’t think anyone would believe me. They’d probably throw me in the luny bin. Anyway, be seeing you.” Joe said as he began to walk in the general direction toward the main street.

Soon he was alone, and Hibiki figured it was a good time to check for anymore ghouls. When he found none, he was cheerful that everything seemed okay, until a wave of dizziness hit him. Once it past, he found himself on his knees, and his arms supporting himself. Before he could wonder any further, voices cut through.

_“Kuze-sama. There are no more ghouls in this area.”_

_“Sir, we would also like to report that all ghouls have been eradicated.”_

_“All clear in this area as well.”_

Hibiki picked himself off the ground and dusted himself off. _“Good, head back to base, but make sure to check for any witnesses.”_ There being witnesses was slim, but it was better to be safe than sorry. So, once he received acknowledgement of his orders, he began to head back to base. He could worry able what happened later.

… 

He stumbled a little as he arrived at the Osaka branch, and then had to immediately move to the side as more vampires arrived with injured, and uninjured vampires were headed toward the terminals carrying what he assumed to be coolers full of block stock.

Hibiki quickly cleared the area to a route more isolated as he headed the command room where the base of operations were moved.

Hibiki sighed, glad that he wasn’t around so many people. It was almost heart wrenching to see so many people working and fighting despite being tired and injured, and then there was something else.

When he was around others, it was like he could feel….their emotions. He couldn’t see or touch any of it, but it was like it was smothering him. Most of the emotions felt like frustration, anger, sadness. Basically all negative feelings, and it was suffocating. He never felt something like it, but maybe it just had to do with what everything that has been going on.

He felt like that might be the explanation, and moved to continue onto the command room, but sharp whistles cut the air.

“What, more!?” Hibiki said as he gave a small groan, then he turned around to head back to the terminal.

_“Hibiki.”_ Yamato’s voice suddenly cut through.

Hibiki started a little, but responded nonetheless. _“Yes?”_

_“You are to lead a team to eliminate a ghoul.”_ Yamato said, however, Hibiki could tell that the other had more to say. _“However, some of the reports describe this particular ghoul as being different. I advise you to be careful.”  
_

Hibiki was a bit worried by that, but it’s not like anything really fazed him much anymore. _“Understood.”_

….

Of course, ever since he was abruptly pulled into the world of vampires, every little thing seemed to surprise him, while also amazing him at the same time.

Hibiki, along with his team consisting of Daichi and Io, and also Jungo and Airi, who also decided to come along, had followed a scent trail to a currently empty shipyard near the port of Nagoya. There, they happened upon the ghoul, which currently looked like it was- 

“Airi, don’t look.” Jungo said as he covered said person’s eyes. Predictable, she began to protest, but Jungo was firm in not letting her see.

“It looks like it’s…giving birth.” Hibiki said as he watched a ghoul that he had killed tons of just an hour ago, come out of- yeah, he wasn’t going to finish that. What he could focus on was that this new ghoul was large and round. 

It almost looked like a hamster, a car sized, hairless, scaly, multicolored, and pregnant hamster. Okay, it didn’t look like a hamster at all, it just looked round, with stubby little legs, and a face. There wasn’t a head, which was even more disconcerting.

“Ew! I really didn’t need to see that.” Daichi said as made a gagging face. Io wasn’t doing much better as she tried to look straight at the ghoul, but her gaze flitted away when it went far too low.

“Think of it this way-“ Hibiki started saying, but then paused. Everything turned to him to see what he was going to say, including Airi, who still couldn’t see anything because Jungo was still covering her eyes. “…Yeah, I’ve got nothing.” He said after he couldn’t figure out a way to make light of things. 

“Let’s just beat it up already!” Airi said as was finally able to escape Jungo’s hold. Fortunately, the bigger ghoul wasn’t giving birth anymore, unfortunately, the “mother” ghoul and its children took notice of them. 

Several of the “children” bloated up in preparation to detonate, but Hibiki reflexively threw out some of his elemental attacks at them and successfully eliminated them before they could explode. He was surprised he could even still use his magic attacks because he had constantly used them since the initial sighting, but he didn’t have much time to think on it as the fighting commenced.

As luck would have it, or rather lack of luck, they were able to defeat all of the children, but the mother was the problem. Every time they caused some sort of damage, it would be regenerate and be healed in no time. To add more salt to the wound, it would also occasionally give birth again. Prompting Jungo to shield Airi’s eyes every time it occurred. 

Hibiki was getting quite frustrated that he was about ready to bombard the thing with an Almighty attack, when the strong scent of death invaded his senses. Before he could wonder why he could smell it, a voice cut in from right next to him.

“Its brethren is keeping it alive.”

“Eep!” Hibiki squeaked as he shuffled backwards towards his teammates, and away from this mysterious figure.

Before anyone could get in a word, the mysterious figure snapped his fingers, and the mother ghoul seemed to implode, before exploding.

Io found her voice before any of the others. “Um, who are you?”

The figure lifted a hand to their mouth and adopted a thoughtful expression. “Ah, yes. I have not introduced myself yet. I am the Anguished One.”

“Um, yeah. Thanks for the help there, couldn’t beat it without you.” Daichi said, looking slightly nervous, but not worried.

At this, the Anguished One dropped his hand to his side, and frowned a little. “You need not give thanks. As its brethren still yet lives.”

“What do you mean?” Jungo said, not caring that Airi flung his arms off herself.

“You may have defeated all of their buds, but if you do not uproot those that spawn them, there is no hope of victory.” The Anguished One said, and then began to slowly disappear, but not before looking directly at Hibiki and leaving a final message. “I await to see the potential of your light, Shining One.” Then he completely disappeared, with the scent of death fading as well.

“What was that about!?” Daichi said as he slowly went over to the spot where the Anguished One stood, and waved his arms in the air, but catching nothing.

“Let’s just head back for now.” Hibiki said as everyone nodded in agreement. Hibiki smiled, glad that at least this was done with, but then paused, suddenly feeling lightheaded. He was also feeling tired, but he hadn’t exactly eaten anything yet. So he was probably just hungry. At this, he nodded a little at himself, and then jogged a bit to catch up with the others.

….

When they got back, the mood in the air was heavy and tense. All the vampires they passed on their way to the command room were sluggish in their movements. What vampires that still had some strength and energy left were busy helping those injured, or unable to move around on their own.

Hibiki sighed, he really wanted to help them, but there were far more pressing matters.

Soon, they made it back to the command room, where there were even less vampires than before. Yamato could be seen talking to several vampires, who nodded and then left to do what they had been assigned.

Yamato turned, and then noticed them. “Report.” He said, tone firm, but seemed tired as well.

“The ghoul has been eliminated, but…” Hibiki said, uncertain how to finish his sentence.

“Some guy calling himself the ‘Anguished One’ killed it.” Daichi said after he sensed Hibiki’s uncertainty.

“The Anguished One? What did he look like?” Yamato said, expression deepening into a frown.

“He was wearing a black and red sweater, and black pants. He also had white hair.” Io said, trying to recall all the details she could.

Now Yamato was really frowning. “I see, and what did he say?”

“He said something about the ghoul’s ‘brethren keeping it alive’ or something.” Airi said.

“That matches up with what the scouts have reported. Fortunately, I have sent trackers on ahead to locate all the remaining abnormal ghouls. The only problem remaining is trying to defeat them when they are all found.” Yamato said.

“We’d have to kill them all at the same time, don’t we?” Hibiki said after considering the facts.

Yamato nodded. “Yes, that seems to be the only option-“ Yamato said before he paused, adopting a look that told Hibiki that the other was having a mental conversation with another vampire. “The trackers have caught the trail, gather anyway still capable. We’ll need all their help if we are to truly defeat these ghouls. Once you have gathered everyone, meet outside Osaka port.” Yamato said. 

“We’ll get right on that.” Hibiki said with a determined expression. Yamato gave a small smile in response.

…

Hibiki was able to get a good number of people together. The people being himself, Io, Daichi, Airi, Jungo, Otome, and Makoto. Once they got to the Osaka port, they met up with Keita, Hinako, Fumi, and the trackers.

“Kuze-sama.” One of the trackers said with a small bow as Hibiki’s group arrived.

Hibiki ignored the honorific, he was starting to think it wouldn’t matter if he told them not to use it. So he moved onto the next best thing. “Thanks for finding these ghouls.”

The tracker was a bit taken aback by the open display of gratitude, as were the other trackers, but nonetheless responded. “There’s no need. We were only doing our job, unfortunately, that is all the help we can provide, as we are not combat capable.”

“That’s fine, we can handle it from here.” Hibiki said with a smile.

The trackers shared a quick glance before nodding. “Understood. Good luck.” The tracker said, and then left with the other trackers.

Hibiki turned to the group with a determined expression. “Let’s do this!”

“You got that right!” Hinako cheered.

“Oh, I’m ready to beat up those annoying ghouls.” Keita said as he cracked his knuckles.

….

They soon found themselves in a condemned warehouse right next to the docks. Fortunately, there were only 3 ghouls for them to fight, unfortunately, there was little room to move around, and the building seemed like it would threaten to collapse at any moment.

Most of them couldn’t summon their familiars as their spiritual reserves were low as it was, and it wasn’t like they could all fit in the warehouse. Regardless, they were making ground, even though the ghouls would occasionally regenerate, they were causing more damage than it could heal.

They also had to deal with all the exploding ghouls that were being spawned (and also Jungo’s and Airi’s bickering).

Everything seemed like it was going okay, but Hibiki couldn’t help but feel like something was going to go wrong. There was also the fact that he was starting to feel cold, even though no one was using any ice attacks. He was also starting to feel even more lightheaded than before, which almost caused him to not hear Daichi’s shout.

“Dude! Look out!”

Hibiki shook his head and turned just in time to see the “baby” ghoul bloat up and explode. The explosion knocked him back, but it also destroyed several support beams that was keeping the building up. What happened next was a domino effect, as the walls and ceiling began to come down, and everyone scrambled to avoid the debris.

Hibiki got up to do the same, but then looked back at the ghouls. They were so close, and he didn’t want to risk having to do everything over again. So once he made sure that everyone was out of range, he let loose one of his more powerful, wide range attacks. An Almighty attack it was, as it obliterated what was left of the abnormal ghouls, as well as most of the warehouse walls and floor.

Hibiki gave a sigh of relief, before he hit the water. It was then he knew something was wrong before he momentarily blacked out. When he came to, he was wet and shaking, with everyone gathered around him. Otome herself was kneeling down right next to him, looking at him with extreme concern.

“W-water’s c-cold.” Hibiki said, trying to smile, but shaking even more, before his vision began to go black again. Before he fully lost consciousness, he was able to catch snippets of what they were saying.

“…under-…less than a minute…”

“…really pale…”

“Hypothermia? …water…not that cold…”

“-shock…..hypovolemia…”

“How?!”

“…need…give blood…”

**…  
**

**….**

**…..**

When Hibiki returned back to the plane of consciousness, confusion and a heavy feeling greeted him. He lay there for a few moments before realizing there were people talking near him. 

“…Divine attribute….Blood Wine...” 

“…would explain the blood loss.”

Hibiki turned his head toward the voices and opened his eyes to see Otome and Yamato. 

Yamato looked about the same as the last time he had seen him, except a little more ruffled, while Otome was missing her doctor’s coat, and had noticeable bandages on her hand. 

The two stopped talking when they noticed movement. Otome looked incredibly relieved while Yamato’s shoulders became less tense.

“Hibiki, I’m so glad you’re okay!” Otome said as she walked toward him to help him sit up in the bed.

Hibiki took a moment to take in his surroundings, and realized that they were in Yamato’s quarters. He also realized he wasn’t wearing a shirt, or any pants for that matter. Hibiki tried not to show his discomfort at being naked, and the only thing covering him was a blanket. “It isn’t as bad as what I’ve experienced so far…By the way, why am I naked?” 

Otome gave a small frown at the first part, buy smiled lightly at the second. “You were showing symptoms of blood loss, so we had to see if there were any serious wounds or injuries. You nearly gave everyone a heart attack, including the Chief here.” 

Yamato remained silent for a moment before speaking. “Yanagiya, since Hibiki is doing better now, go check on those who would need your assistance.” 

“But- oh.” Otome said, before her expression took on a large grin. “Oh, okay. Just makes sure he gets enough rest and blood.” Otome said as he walked to the door and was about ready to leave, but said one last thing. “And try not to be too rough with him.” She said with a giggle before closing the door. 

Hibiki’s eyes widened at the very suggestive sentence, then he shot a glance at Yamato, who only looked somewhat confused by the statement. 

Silence overtook the room, until Yamato began undoing his tie with one hand, while the other began to undo the buttons to his coat. 

At this, Hibiki spoke with wide eyes. “Um, w-what are you doing?” 

Yamato didn’t stop his actions, but responded nonetheless. “I’m removing these to make things easier.” 

“Easier for what?!” Hibiki said, growing even more nervous. 

“For you to feed. What did you think I meant?” Yamato said as he tugged his tie free, and took off his coat, which he then draped at the end of the bed. 

“Oh, nothing really…but why? Hasn’t the shipment of blood arrived already?” Hibiki said, nervousness fading, to be replaced with brief embarrassment. 

“It’s has.” Yamato said, but then paused briefly as he seemed to consider his words. “You offered blood to me. I feel as if I should repay the favor by offering up my blood in return.” Yamato said as he pushed the collar of his shirt open and turned toward the other. 

It seemed Yamato was firm in his decision to do so, and refusing would likely upset the other, if not everyone else. So, having a vague sense of what to next, tried to shift closer, but it seemed his body was still weak from lack of blood. 

Sensing this, Yamato moved closer and placed a hand on Hibiki’s back to support the other. “Relax. You can lean on me as you feed.” Yamato said softly. 

“R-Right.” Hibiki said as he shivered lightly at feeling Yamato’s hand on his back. It wasn’t cold, but warm actually. It felt…nice. Suddenly realizing where his thoughts were headed, Hibiki quickly continued. “So, how am I supposed to do this?”

“Ah yes, this is your first feeding from a person. No matter, the area to feed is the same area where you turn others.” Yamato said as he angled his head to allow Hibiki easier access. 

Hibiki nodded as he located the spot and then punctured the skin. Soon the warm blood flowed into his mouth. At once, Hibiki felt like he was in bliss as the taste was sweet and heavenly. Hibiki almost snorted at the revelation, but managed to keep it in.

‘Well, if I didn’t know before, I know now that Yamato is a virgin.’ Hibiki thought with a smile as he finished drinking, and licked the punctures until they healed. Although he didn’t pull away, instead he remained in his current position, leaning against Yamato’s chest, and face at the crook of the other’s neck.

They remained like that for some time, before Hibiki’s eyes began to droop, and his head dipped before raising again. Sleep was starting to overtake him, and he didn’t want to move. It just felt…

So, in response to the feeling, Hibiki relaxed his entire body against the other. Yamato was slightly surprised at the sudden weight, but allowed it. Then he hesitantly lifted a hand and placed it on Hibiki’s head.

“You should rest.” Yamato said he began stroking Hibiki’s hair.

“Mmm.” Hibiki hummed in response, mostly far gone in deep sleep.

**Relationship has now moved to Uncertain**

_Just what are these feelings and thoughts?_

_...._

_...._

_...._

Extra

Yamato Hotsuin was confounded. 

That never happened, he was supposed to know all there was to know, and yet the more time he spent with Hibiki, the more things became uncertain.

In just a span of weeks, the unknown vampire raised up from the status of a young pup living off rotten blood and human food, to being a vampire he could count on. 

It was more than he had ever wished for when he wanted a competent subordinate. Of course there were his other subordinates, Kanno, Sako, and Yanagiya, but due to their human origins, their growth and skills were limited, and while Hibiki had a human upbringing, his pureblood status allowed him to soar past limitations.

Although, being a pureblood didn't immediately mean that the vampire would be guaranteed to become strong, he had already met some purebloods at yearly gatherings, some who could barely summon a light wisp of fire, or couldn't even summon their familiar.

Hibiki's survival proved that he had potential, and his pureblood status merely took away the limitations that would have prevented further growth.

Despite all that, there were still some issues that posed some problems. Some of those issues revolved around Hibiki's upbringing.

He still seethed at the fact that Hibiki had been abandoned before being able to prove anything. That was the problem with certain pureblood families. They choose heirs based on appearance instead of any actual achievements. It was this combination that was purging Japan of useful vampires, and slowly filling it with weak vampires who were killed off just as quick as when they were made. 

It was this fact that made Hibiki different from all the others. Having to figure out everything by himself, and the strength that allowed him to keep going. 

This is what he was looking for in vampires that would be a part of his coven, but there were consequences from living such a, "human" lifestyle. 

Yanagiya had told him when they were alone, and after she had operated on Hibiki, that there were more problems than the eye could see. That was most concerning, considering he had seen the poor shape that Hibiki was in. This brought more problems to light.

Since Hibiki had grown up learning about the anatomy of a human, he didn't know the anatomy of a vampire. True, they were similar in structure, but once they got to the functions was where things grew complicated. It was why he considered Hibiki younger than him. For while Hibiki was indeed biologically older than him, Hibiki needed...looking after. 

Hibiki did not know the ways of their life, nor did he know how to properly take care of his body. Simply forgetting to feed was forgetting a meal, and human food was not a suitable substitute, and wounds did heal, but they had to be cleansed first before being allowed to close.

All of these simple mistakes were those made by pups, but that was understandable, considering Hibiki's circumstances. Fortunately, along with above average skills, Hibiki also had above average intellect. The only thing truly concerning now was Hibiki's health. 

While they could treat the malnourishment and various other conditions needed to be dealt with, they probably couldn't treat things that all the healers in the world couldn't fix, which was aging.

For while vampires lived longer than humans, they still aged, with the rate of aging slowing down as they got older. Regardless, there was no way to reverse the effects of aging. As a result, Hibiki might die much sooner than he would, and that's excluding the chance of dying during missions. 

This made him give pause, the fact that Hibiki could possibly die before him, and not because of external causes, but natural causes. Normally he wouldn't blink an eye if his subordinates did die, it was a fact that their lives weren't safe, anything could happen, but the thought that Hibiki dying before him, or rather just the thought of Hibiki dying stirred something in him. 

Just Hibiki's brush with death after defeating the Dubhe had sparked something. He didn't know what it was since he had never experienced before, yet it felt entirely natural.

He could not describe the feeling, and lately it had been growing stronger, especially now that Hibiki spent his free time with his now turned friends, instead of in his office with hi- 

Perhaps it would be best to spend some time away from him. Nagoya seems like a good place, they are currently low on manpower, and Hibiki's companions would gain some experience from it if they went along. This seemed like a good choice, he would be able to send people over to Nagoya, and have time to think about what was happening.

... 

It's only been one night since Hibiki arrived in Nagoya, and the feeling has gotten stronger. Instead of a reprieve, he received a burden on top of all his duties. Now he found himself regretting his decision, and that never happened. His decisions were made in utmost confidence and flawless calculations, yet he couldn't keep his mind from wandering. 

His thoughts were on Hibiki, instead of on the reports and papers he was supposed to sign. This was most troubling, and at the pace he was going, he was never going to finish going through it all.

With a huff, he summoned Cerberus with a flick of his wrist. Once the shimmer of light faded, the familiar cast a gaze around the room before subtly relaxing after finding no threat. Then it looked toward him and waited. Good, it seemed it wasn't affected by what was ailing him.

"Cerberus, I want you to bite me whenever you see that my thoughts are going astray."

At once, the ferocity disappeared from the familiar's expression to be replaced by one of perplexity. It blew out a breath of air and shook its head. Then it began to look at him as if he had grown a second head. 

Upon reevaluating his words, he realized that his request was unusual, so he clarified. "I cannot concentrate on my work, so I need external stimuli to keep me focused. Pain seemed like a good option."

The only reaction he got was a twitch of the ears, before Cerberus cast its gaze around the room again. It did not see anything out of place or anything new that would cause any distraction that would- 

Its ears raised slightly. The White Ones were not here, and after a few sniffs, the faded scent confirmed that they had not been coming to this place as often. It turned back to its master, gaze slightly softer. Maybe its master was lonely, and he probably didn't realize it. So with that in mind, it went to its master's side and sat.

He didn't quite know what Cerberus was thinking, but at least it seemed to comply with his request. Although when his mind did wander, he didn't receive a bite, instead he got a nudge, which seemed to bring him back to focus. He didn't mind the substitution, at least he wouldn't have to explain to Yanagiya why he would have bite marks had Cerberus done exactly as it was told. 

.... 

A few hours had passed, and he had successfully managed to finish reading most the reports, and signing the majority of the paperwork. The occasional nudges from Cerberus had worked, now he just needed to finish the rest.

Except, the brood's emotions suddenly changed from calm to chaotic. As clan chief, he was able to feel the entirety of the clan’s emotions as a whole, albeit at a muted level. Still, minutes passed and no one came to explain why emotions turned so suddenly. So after safely putting away all the reports and paperwork, he made his way out of the office, but dismissed Cerberus as the lower clansmen were prone to fearfulness at the mere sight of it. 

Upon reaching the hall, he could tell most of the activity was centered around the infirmary wing. Perhaps a clansman had improperly summoned a familiar, which wasn't too concerning as it did happen occasionally. Yet they should have at least sent someone to inform him of the details. 

He sighed. What he would have given to get more competent underlings. Nevertheless, now that he was out here, he might as well go and get the details himself. So with movement that was natural to him by now, he leapt and seamlessly shifted to his bat form and then flew to the infirmary, only to recoil slightly when he got there. 

The scent of blood was strong, but it was all vampire blood which was less alluring than human blood, so the clansmen weren't going out of control, but there was also another thing that was alarming. It was the wounds that all the clansmen had. Those wounds were not the usual for improper familiar summoning, but the wounds of battle. 

"You." He said to a random clanswoman rushing by. "Report." Immediately the clanswoman became somewhat frightful. 

"S-sir!" The clanswoman said as she stood up straight, yet trembled slightly. "There are multiple casualties and fatalities." 

"I'm going to need more details than that." He said in a flat tone.

She could not maintain eye contact, and probably wished that someone else were standing in her place, but nevertheless she answered. "A pack of abnormal ghouls have attacked the Nagoya branch and are currently being engaged by Kuze-sama and various other clan members."

At once, the room temperature drastically dropped, causing the room to become deathly silent, while also drawing attention to them. "Something as important as an abnormal ghoul attack and no one thought to come tell me." He said, his gaze frigid. 

The clanswoman standing in front of him cowered, her body shivering from the cold. Fortunately for her, she did not have to endure it for long. 

"Chief." Otome said as he walked up and herded the clanswoman behind her. "There are more important matters right now. Such as tending to the wounded and getting help to the Nagoya branch." 

There was a tense moment, before the room temperature began to climb back up. "Very well. Have those able to help with healing and supply runs." He said as he began to walk briskly out of the room. 

_"Sako."_

There was a brief moment before she responded. _"Sir?"_ She sounded calm. It seemed she wasn't informed either. That was going to change.

_"Round up as many members as you can from patrols, and report to the Terminal_." 

_"What? Why?"_ A wisp of concern colored her tone. 

_"Abnormal ghouls are currently being engaged at the Nagoya branch. Swift response is needed."_

_"!!"_ He could feel a brief spark of shock through the link, but it passed as soon as it came. There was a momentary lapse of silence on her end, but then it was broken. _"It's done. We'll meet you at the Terminal."_

He smiled, at least now things seemed to be going smoothly. 

... 

He took it back, once they had all arrived at the Nagoya branch, he was hit by a tsunami of emotions. What he felt in Tokyo paled in comparison to what he was feeling now. There was panic, pain, desperation, and a myriad of other emotions just flooding his senses that he had to cut his connection with everyone for the time being.

This meant that he couldn't communicate telepathically with the brood, but Sako was quickly making up for it by contacting Hibiki and asking for the location of the abnormals. 

Her sudden alarmed expression did not bode well. 

"Sir, the abnormals are located here in the Hal-" Sako said before he cut her off by quickly heading toward the Hall.

When he arrived, everything else was drowned out as his eyes quickly found Hibiki.

Time seemed to slow down as nothing else mattered except for Hibiki, who was about to be seriously injured if nothing was done soon, but the distance between Hibiki and himself was far too great.

No! He would protect Hibiki, because-

_Hibiki is mine!_

At once, a direct link formed between them, and he grasped it tightly. Immediately, he found himself behind Hibiki as the ghouls drew closer.

Without a second thought, he summoned a blazing inferno with one hand, while the other wrapped around Hibiki's waist. They would burn for hurting his ( _beloved)_ Hibiki.

At once the ghouls were reduced to ashes, and their screeches silenced by the flames. Although, he was not satisfied just yet. The ghouls needed to pay for causing all this trouble, and at that he swiftly dispatched Cerberus to take care of the remaining ghouls.

As the ghouls were dying, his focus switched to Hibiki, who spoke up. They exchanged a few sentences, when Hibiki flinched in pain. The wound was immediately healed, but he held on even after it had been healed.

At Hibiki's request, he let go, but still found himself longing. Something was tugging at him inside, he just didn't know wha-

His focus shifted to that cursed detective, and then back to Hibiki, who immediately began to rattle out an explanation. Normally such a traitorous action couldn't be excused, but...

He could feel that Hibiki was being honest about it all.

Strange, he thought he had temporarily severed connections with everyone.

Nevertheless, there were more important things to attend to.


End file.
